


Five Nights at Junes

by SkylaDoragono



Series: Five Nights at Junes Trilogy [1]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe, Attempted Murder, Crossover, Gen, Murder, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-15 01:03:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2209770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkylaDoragono/pseuds/SkylaDoragono
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Down on his luck former detective Adachi is talked into accepting an easy job as a night guard at the local family super store, Junes.  The job ends up the complete opposite of easy, and no one mentioned that the animatronics were a bit… unique.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Before the Job

**Author's Note:**

> This horrible, horrible idea is all the fault of DancingPurge. I apologize in advance for EVERYTHING that happens in this story.

> Termination due to unhealthy mental state effective immediately.

The words were still burning into Tohru Adachi's brain as he made his way home, looking like a dog that had its tail permanently stuck between its legs. His release notice was resting on the seat beside him, looking more like the devil himself trying to bargain for his soul than just an innocent piece of paper. The few belongings he had at his former desk were rolling around on the floor, leaving that hellish paper the only thing on the seat, just so it could stare at him as he made his way home… or at least tried to. Traffic on the main street of Inaba was extra busy, and it left him stuck – probably a dead animal on the road or something. Stupid hick town…

Finally, Adachi turned off on a side street, following the road until he came out at one of his favorite dives. It was probably a bad idea to go get drunk, especially since he had limited funds and now needed to get out of his police department-paid housing by the end of the month, but right now he did not care that much. It was pressing relentlessly against his skull: _Too crazy to be a detective. Not mentally sound. Needs immediate mental assistance. Terminated._ It sounded more like they were treating him like a dog that needed to be put down than a human… and maybe that was even true, if he could not make it in the one career that he wanted in his life.

He slouched out of his car as soon as he parked, happy to drown himself for awhile, only to see a familiar face already at the bar. It brought a pained smile to his face to see his mentor, Ryotaro Dojima, if only because he knew the news was going to hurt the man. Still, he came up to the bar, sliding into the seat next to him and waiting to be acknowledged. Instead of Dojima saying anything, however, he just raised a hand to the bartender, who answered with a drink that got slid over to Adachi.

"…heard the news," he said gruffly as an explanation.

Adachi let out a sigh; well, that saved him some trouble.

"I don't know where I screwed up," he murmured faintly, grabbing his drink and downing it. How was some written test supposed to tell people that it was not "safe" for him to be a detective? Dojima seemed to agree with him, considering the snort he let out.

"It's bullshit," he grumbled into his own glass. "You're supposed to be a little crazy; how the hell else are you supposed to deal with the people you pull in everyday?"

Adachi smiled faintly at that, glancing sidelong at his mentor. Dojima had been a detective for as long as anyone cared to remember, and had taken him under his wing when he was still a rookie. That was, until he took an early retirement because of family issues; no one had been big on the details, and Dojima had never told him why. Adachi was not keen on asking either – whatever was personal enough for a man to leave the job he loved early was probably something he did not want to get in the middle of. It was a shame, though; as much as Adachi got annoyed with working the job he loved out in the sticks, Dojima had made it so much better for him, to the point they kept in touch despite his retirement. It still made working all the more bearable.

Now there were "department regulations" and everyone had to meet "certain criteria", and Adachi did not meet that criteria. At all. He let out a defeated sigh, practically inhaling his drink before smacking it down on the counter, earning himself a sympathetic look.

"I've got something that might… cheer you up," Dojima began as the bartender took Adachi's glass to fill it again. He did not seem so sure he wanted to give the thing he was tapping to his former partner, visibly hesitating, before he finally grabbed the newspaper and shoved it toward him. "It's grunt work. Under your skills, I know, but it'll get you on your feet."

Adachi stared at him, before glancing down at the paper. Circled in red was a picture of some happy cartoon-like characters: a frog, a bunny, a bear, and what looked like a guy in a mask. The article by it announced it as Junes, the local super store that carried everything that anyone visiting could ever need. He was familiar with it, of course; everyone in town went there for some reason or another, though he had never seen the mascot characters in the image. His eyes lingered on it, before finally reading the job posting article, looking for a night guard starting at…

"…is that twelve thousand yen _a night?!"_ he blurted out before he could stop himself, his eyes widening to take up the whole paper. Dojima chuckled as Adachi's eyes roved over the article again and again; it did not specify if it was a night, but what else could it be? That was too low for a week.

"Like I said, I know it's beneath you," Dojima said, resting his hand on his shoulder, "but it's a stepping stone for now. From here, you could work your way up to better security positions. And let's face it, private security pays better than the prefecture anyway, right?"

"Obviously, if this place is paying that much," Adachi remarked, missing the distant look on his mentor's face. He beamed up at him, finally feeling a _little_ better after getting that abysmal termination notice. "I'll give 'em a call right away!"

The bartender chose that moment to set his next drink down in front of him, and Adachi hesitated a moment, glancing back and forth between the drink and the article, before finally grabbing the drink and downing it in one gulp. He was out of the bar like a shot to make the call to Junes without any background noise, and Dojima just let out a sigh, shaking his head.

Hopefully he was not making a mistake here…


	2. Night One

In hindsight, Adachi should have known something was up the moment he was handed the uniform, never mind the million other clues that had been staring him in the face.

The day of his first shift, he had to arrive a few hours ahead of time for the usual bullshit paperwork and orientation information. All of this was given to him by the store manager, a balding man named Mooroka… or Moron; Adachi was not sure which, as he was more distracted by the man's impressive teeth than anything else. Moron seemed appropriate as well, considering the first thing he got on his case about was to not use the security tablet to access his "My Face" or any other internet service while on duty. Fucking idiot.

After the lecture, the million miles of paperwork that Adachi had to pretend he was reading before he signed it, and having the company policy ground into his head, he was taken to the area where the guard station was at. It was just beyond the child recreation area, a section of the store he had no idea existed. Apparently it was established ten years ago, long before he even became a detective, and there had been some mascot designing contest, which led to the cute animatronics "walking" around. Despite the bright and friendly atmosphere of area, however, not many parents seemed to be keen on leaving their children there; more than once he saw a mother with an unruly brat by the hand glance into the place, before hurrying away.

That should have been his first clue.

It was after all that the Moron shoved his new uniform in his hand and told him to go get changed. Adachi shot the store manager's back an irritable look as he shot off (his second clue that he missed), before glancing around for a clock and noticing that he had a half hour before his shift started. He found a bathroom to change in and nearly blanched when he pulled out the uniform shirt. It was gaudy as all hell, and vibrant enough to make the bright red and yellow of the Moel Gas Station uniforms look dull in comparison. That should have been the thing that screamed that _something was wrong,_ especially since he had not seen any other employees wearing _bright purple._

"I feel like I have a target painted on my everything…" he muttered under his breath, fidgeting with the shirt as he left the bathroom.

Adachi glanced around, noting the area with the guard office was also near the shipping docks. He could see someone closing up their truck, and the man paused, glancing at him and his hideous uniform in surprise. A faint smile worked its way onto his face a moment later, and he approached Adachi.

"Hey, new night guard, hunh?" the man asked, drawing a sheepish noise out of him.

"I guess that's kinda obvious…" he muttered, before offering his hand. "Adachi Tohru."

"Namatame Taro," the other man returned. "My family runs the local shipping business. I'm usually leaving just before the night shift starts."

"Good to know," Adachi replied, before letting out a faint sigh. "Well, I guess I should be getting to my station. Don't want to get snapped at for being negligent on the first day."

Namatame let out a faint laugh. "King Moron gave you the lecture already?" he asked, getting Adachi to raise an eyebrow. He laughed again in response, before explaining, "I hear the other employees call him that all the time. Don't let him get to you."

A grin finally worked its way onto Adachi's face, and he waved goodbye to Namatame before going to his new post. The guard station was just as gaudy as the uniform, and pictures of the mascots drawn by kids were pinned all over the walls. The desk and chair were scuffed and well worn, and part of the desk looked like it had an unfortunate ketchup accident that no one had been able to clean up properly.

…and was that a bleach smell? Weird.

Adachi flopped onto the chair, just as he saw the lights start to wink out in the store. He let out a faint grunt; he should have guessed they would cut most of the power, but he could not even see emergency lights on out there…

He was about to shrug it off, when he spotted a tape recorder on the desk, along with a cassette marked as "Day One Training" in neat and cute handwriting. Adachi almost laughed – geeze, how ancient was this thing? – before taking up the tape, flipping it around in his hands. Well, it could not hurt to play it, and he slipped the cassette tape into the player. A shuffling sound was the first thing to be heard, as if the person that made it was not entirely sure how to use a recorder – not that he could blame whomever it was. Finally, a young female voice came over the speaker.

"Is this working…?" she asked faintly, before letting out a breath. "Ah, well. Hello there! If you're hearing this, then you're the new security guard taking my place. I'm finishing up my last week now, before heading off to college, and I know it can be a bit overwhelming here. They… don't really tell you much in orientation…"

A nervous laugh came from the girl.

"Ah, anyway, introductions! My name is Konishi Saki, and I've been the night guard here at Junes for the past three years. I'll need to read you some legal information first, so let's get that out of the way…"

She trailed off, shuffling through papers as Adachi tried to picture what she looked like from her voice, and trying to figure out how the hell a teenager could be employed as a night guard. Obviously they were pretty loose with regulations at this place.

"Okay… ah! Welcome to Junes, where every day is customer appreciation day! Junes Corporation is not responsible for damage to property or person. On discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing persons report will be made within ninety days of discovery, or until the carpets have been cleaned and the floor has been bleached, blah, blah, blah…"

Adachi had been nodding his head back and forth, making blabbing motions with his hand throughout her explanation, and it took a few minutes to register exactly what she had said. He stared at the tape recorder as it kept going, before flopping over in the chair and rewinding the tape to hear it again.

"—discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing persons report will be made within ninety-days of discovery, or until the carpets have been cleaned and the floor as been bleached, blah, blah, blah—"

"What the fuck…" Adachi muttered under his breath, but the girl on the tape did not pause for long.

"Now, that might sound pretty bad, but there's really nothing to worry about. The animatronics? They just become a little bit quirky at night. I think they're left in some kind of free roam mode or something, and they tend to wander around at night. Something about their servos locking up if they're left off for too long or something like that. They used to be left in free roam during the day too, but ever since that biting incident…"

She trailed off, before letting out a sheepish laugh. "Hah… w-who knew the human body could live without the frontal lobe, right?"

Adachi's eyes went saucer wide, a hand going to his head as he tried to picture something strong enough to _bite through_ the skull and into the brain like that.

"Anyway, the only thing you need to worry about is if the characters happen to see you after hours, most of them won't recognize you as a person. They'll probably think of you as a metal endoskeleton without a costume, so they'll try and put you into one. That probably wouldn't be so bad if the costumes weren't filled with crossbeams and wires, especially around the head area. I… guess that would kinda hurt if your head got shoved in there. N-not that I would know, you know… i-it's not like anyone has died or anything.

"Well, that's all I have for your first night here! Check the cameras on your security tablet, and be sure to close the doors when you see one get close to you. Good night, and good luck!"

The tape fell silent, before snapping off, and Adachi was left staring in absolute disbelief. This had to be some kind of prank… torture the new kid? He thought he was past shit like this after high school. He let out a breath, fiddling around the desk before locating the security tablet in question, popping it on to the camera functions. The first camera to come up was one pointed at all the animatronics he had seen earlier, all still, all staring out mindlessly into the darkness of the store. Adachi shook his head after a moment, setting the tablet down and leaning back. Geeze, he was getting worked up over—

_BAM!_

The noise had Adachi nearly jumping out of his skin as he slammed himself and the chair upright again, grabbing the tablet. He was halfway to opening up the camera functions again when he realized how silly he was being, letting the creepy training tape get to him. That did not keep him from pulling up the cameras on the mascots and…

_One of them was missing._

Adachi felt his heart leap up into his throat as he stared at the empty spot were the bunny with the pink thunderbolt pattern on its fur had been. His fingers shook as he slid them along the screen, finally locating the mascot in what looked like a little dining area for birthday parties. The empty eyes of the animatronic were facing a nicer chair than the others, presumably where the kid celebrating the birthday would sit.

He shook, forcing out a breath. What was wrong with him? Obviously, these things were programmed to behave a certain way. If it was in their programming to stop at the birthday table and give a little speech or sing a little song, then of course they were going to follow that programming. He forced himself to breathe again, rubbing his hand over his eyes…

…and when he looked at the tablet again, the bunny animatronic had changed position again. This time, it was staring right at the camera, glowing eyes looking like it could see past the lens and to the person on the other side, and they did not seem so empty anymore.

Adachi could not keep his heart from pounding in fear, and the creaking noises of the store settling in the unnerving quiet were not helping matters. A much louder, much closer creak reached his ears at that moment, and he looked down at the tablet again to see that the bunny had moved yet again, heading slowly toward one of the hallways that led to the guard office.

He shot up from his seat, slamming his hand on the door release before he could stop himself. A thick metal door slid down into place, looking more like something that belonged at a military base than a superstore. Adachi did not want to think about why such a thick door would be necessary, instead leaning against it and sliding down, his heart pounding hard enough to break out of his ribcage.

There was a small window on either side of the guard room, looking out into the hallway beyond. He tilted the tablet just a little, so the image of the window above his head reflected in the screen. Minutes ticked by so slow they felt like hours, before something finally _moved_ in the darkness. He caught a faint glimpse of pink, before glowing _eyes_ reflected off the screen, and it was obvious the mechanical puppet was staring _directly into the office._ Adachi hugged the tablet to his chest in terror, not wanting to look as he heard the animatronic shuffle right up to the door. Silence hung outside, and he could swear he heard something soft scraping against the door in some kind of twisted knock.

It felt like forever before he saw the fluffy pink in the window again as the animatronic finally decided to move on. Adachi thumped his head back against the door, a faint sob coming from him before he could stop himself, and he pulled the tablet up, checking the camera again. He could see the bunny slowly creaking its way back through to the dining area again, and he let out a breath, flipping back over to the view of the other animatronics—

…where was the damn bird?

Adachi's heart slammed right back into his throat as he flipped through the cameras, cursing as a couple of them came up "audio only" when he could not hear anything over the pounding in his ears. He finally located the camera that showed the brilliant red bird… _just outside the other door._ Dropping the tablet, he launched himself up, smacking his hand on the door lock, though not before catching a glimpse of ruffled red feathers. The door slid closed, locking him safely into the room, but it did not keep him from the gaze of the animatronic bird in the window, glowing eyes staring down at him like it could actually see him.

"Oh fuck this shit," Adachi muttered under his breath. He scrambled back up to his feet, going for the other door; it should have been clear now that the bunny had gone back, right? He smacked the door open, half expecting pink, fluffy, and terrifying to be on the other side. Thankfully the bunny had remained away, and he poked his head out, glancing to either side for a pair of eyes that would tell him the coast was not so clear…

He spotted the yellow glint out of the corner of his eye first, realizing he could see straight all the way back to the stage from the left-side hallway. Adachi turned his head fully around, past the sight of the lumbering bunny with its back to him, was a pair of beady yellow eyes all the way on the stage. It took him a moment to realize it was coming from the bear, and that moment was far, far too long. The animatronic let out a hideously loud screech then, loud enough to make Adachi jump out of his skin, but also for the bunny to turn around faster than that thing was supposed to be able to. It was shooting for him in the next half second, and he had barely longer than that to throw himself back into the guard office and smack the lock closed.

He was falling over on his rear end as the banging noises came at the door, the bird behind him echoing its friend. This could not be real, this was just his mind playing tricks on him; Adachi kept trying to tell himself that, but the banging was certainly very real, and so was the scraping and the creaking and…

…and suddenly it all stopped.

Adachi stayed sitting there on his rear end, waiting to see the fluffy pink or feathery red and the glowing eyes hover past the windows, but they never did. They were still out there, watching his doors, just waiting for him to think they left and open one. He was not about to do that though, and instead he reached blindly for the tablet, hugging it to his chest as he scooted himself backward until he was safely tucked under the desk.

~.oOOo.~ 

The morning shift supervisor was an elderly, happy-go-lucky kind of guy, which was considerably impressive when taking into account the amount of strange things he had seen in his time at Junes – the kind of things he could never share with another human being. He was pretty sure the sight he just walked in on was going to take a pretty high place on that list of "things that can never be talked about ever" too.

It was his responsibility to relieve the night guard when he came in at six o'clock in the morning. That sometimes meant different things, but over the last three years, he was very happy to have only needed to break out the bleach when some stupid teenagers thought it was a good idea to try and break into the store. The previous night guard had taken quite a liking to the animatronics it seemed, and it was nice and quiet in the mornings while she worked there. Such a shame she had to go.

The new guy, however, did not seem to be having the same luck as she did. When he got in that morning, Take the Bunny and Sakuya the Phoenix were on either side of the guard office, frozen in place as they usually were during the day time hours. The doors to the office were wide open and the lights were out inside, though thankfully there was a faint whimpering sound coming from within. He almost let out a groan; it looked like the newbie fool tried to leave right on the first night. Most people did not make that mistake until at least their third or fourth night.

He shuffled over to the control box, setting the animatronic control back to manual, and making sure to send the bunny and the bird as far out of sight as possible before going into the office. He had to hit the press button switch to get the lights back on again, that earned him a terrified squeak, followed by a loud _bang_ from under the desk. He let out a faint grunt, reaching over to pull the chair away and reveal the young man curled up in a ball on the floor.

"Well, hello there, new guy!" he greeted the trembling lump of a man, only to receive a squeak in answer. "Nice to meet'ya, Squeaks. How'd your first night go?"

That only earned him a terrified sounding whimper, and he was fairly sure if the new guy's eyes got any wider, they would take up his entire head. He smiled reassuringly, stepping back so he could at least try to get out from under the desk.

"Well, your shift's over," he said. "You can go on home now and get some sleep."

"S-s-s-sleep?!" the young man finally yelped, staring up at him like he was insane. It was a few minutes more before the guy was finally crawling out from under the desk, staring at him for a moment longer, before bolting out the door so fast, he may well have left skid marks behind.

"Don't forget to clock out, Squeaks!" he called after him, before shaking his head. There was no way that guy was going to last very long… it looked like he was going to have to get reacquainted with the smell of bleach again.


	3. Night Two

_She was huddled up against him, pressed tightly against his back and trusting him to protect her. He wasn't really sure how he was supposed to do that, but maybe if they worked together, they'd be able to get out of this mess. Now if only he knew where the other two went…_

_He froze up, hearing something coming, and he shoved her away, toward the kitchen, begging her to hide in hushed tones. She gave a terrified nod, scrambling off, and he made sure the sight of her red yukata disappeared around the corner before he went to hide himself. The birthday kid's chair was the best defense he had, which really was no defense at all, considering how tall he was for his age. He could see the monster coming after them, glowing eyes and claw glinting in the darkness. He knew he was spotted, and the monster let out a roar, coming straight for him and—_

_It was a blur, swirling monsters, beady red eyes and sharp, painful claws. The monster was humming as he worked, carving out pieces of flesh with its claws as a happy tune was the last thing he ever heard…_

~.oOOo.~ 

Adachi was going to quit.

A hundred and twenty thousand yen a night was great and all, but there was no way in hell it was worth what he went through last night. There was no amount of pay that could justify him hiding under the desk in pants shitting terror all damn night. He was going in there, he was going to tell King Moron that he was quitting, and he needed to try a night in the guard box himself before he even thought of getting someone else in there. He was going to take his a hundred and twenty thousand yen for that first night, get drunk, and go and yell at Dojima for even _suggesting_ he try a job like this.

That was the plan anyway.

He should have known that things would not go so smoothly the moment he came to the store. A small person approached him, and at first he dismissed them as just a kid; they were wearing a cap that one would expect to see on some corny TV detective drama, complete with a fancy coat and checkered pants. He could not even immediately place their gender until they planted a hand on their hip, cocking their stance so one arm would have hung lower than the other: either they were really, _really_ gay, or this was a woman. Adachi stopped short when it was obvious she was not going to let him through, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"You're the new night guard at this establishment, correct?" the woman asked, forcing her voice in a lower octave. It was pretty damn convincing; were he anyone else, he might have thought she was a guy instead.

Adachi glanced down at the gaudy as hell purple shirt in his hands, before giving her a dead-eyed look that was only partially intentional. The nightmares that had kept him from sleeping that morning made up the other part.

"Yeah, kinda obvious," he answered dryly.

She did not seem bothered by that, instead reaching into her coat and pulling out a private investigator badge. Adachi almost groaned at the sight of it; really? Was this the kind of luck he had now after being fired from the department? Having to deal with little pretend detectives now?

"Shirogane Naoto," she introduced. "I've been hired to investigate circumstances at Junes."

Adachi stared at her in disbelief, before blurting out the first thing that came to his head: "Is that _really_ your name?"

She let out an awkward noise, looking like she did not even know how to respond to that. "Of course."

He continued to stare a moment, watching her squirm; yeah, definitely a pretend detective. Between the get up and her inability to keep a straight face like that, it was obvious. After a moment, he just let out a tired sigh, moving past her without so much as a word. She let out a sound of protest, turning to go after him.

"Wait, I need to ask you some que—"

"Save it," Adachi replied. "I'm not about to stab myself in the foot just outside my job."

She called after him again, but he ignored her, storming into the store instead. Even if she was an actual cop, he was not going to answer any questions anyway; he was going to quit this stupid job, get a beer, and find someplace else to work. Adachi repeated that plan in his head over and over, and did not stop his angry storming until he got all the way to King Moron's office. He gave a sharp knock on the door, getting barked into the office barely a second later. The buck-toothed idiot raised an eyebrow at him coming into the room, and Adachi planted his hands on the desk, fixing him with the most annoyed stare he could muster.

"You didn't mention the _other_ company policies, you know," he managed to get out, somehow keeping his voice calm, never mind he wanted to grab Moron by the head and shove his teeth into a wall. He was hoping the bucktoothed idiot would at least be bothered by the fact that he was bringing this to him, but he did not even blink.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied smoothly, and Adachi almost pounded his fists on the desk.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" he hissed. "Those things are _messed up!"_

Morooka's expression did not change at all, other than looking just a little more irritated. "I would have thought a former detective would have the stones to deal with some harmless animatronics at night."

 _Harmless animatronics;_ Adachi came very close to screaming. "You're insane. Just give me my pay for last night; I'm outta here."

King Moron leaned forward, his huge teeth becoming more obvious as he smiled. "Pay? After one night? You don't get _paid_ until you complete your week. It says as much in your contract."

Adachi fell mute at that, leaning away from the desk as what the manager said slowly started to register in his brain. _The whole week…_ he barely survived one night! How was he supposed to go through the entire five day work week dealing with these things?!

"Th-that's illegal…" he fumbled lamely, but he knew he was stuck. It was a clear case of contract law, and it was his own fault for not actually reading it.

"If it's so damn illegal, then you shouldn't've signed it!" King Moron finally snapped, standing up from his desk. "Now get outta my sight! Your shift is starting soon anyway!"

Adachi found himself stumbling out of the office, a numb feeling making his body tingle. This is what he got for not reading the fine print, but then again, how many jobs had the danger of killer mechanical bunnies to worry about? At the same time, what if it had just been all in his head? What if the training tape just made him super paranoid, and he just imagined the screeching noise the bear animatronic had made? What if he just imagined the bunny barreling after him, and then hanging out outside the door for the rest of the night?

By the time the lights in the store around the little guard office where winking out, Adachi had himself convinced that he had dreamed the whole thing. He probably just fell asleep in the chair after listening to the tape, and dreamed about the cute animatronics coming after him. A breath escaped from him as he kicked back in the chair, and he noticed then that there was a new tape marked "Day Two Training" by his feet on the desk.

He _almost_ did not put it in the tape deck, not in the mood for another prank from his fellow coworkers that he never had to deal with. Eventually, however, he decided to humor them; maybe in the morning he could tell them to go fuck themselves.

He slid the tape into the deck, hitting play and waiting for the female voice from last night to come over the speaker. Again, she sounded like she was baffled by the old technology, before muttering at it.

"Ah… hi! Well, if you're hearing this, you've survived night one. Congratulations!"

Saki sounded _way_ too happy this time.

"I won't talk quite that long this time, since Teddie and his friends tend to become more active as the week goes on. You might want to keep an eye on the cameras as I talk, just to make sure no one starts moving on you."

Adachi paled, telling himself over and over again that it was just a prank, and that the animatronics were really not going to start moving. He eyed the security tablet, resting innocently on the desk, before finally snatching it and flipping on the cameras. The rabbit, bird, and bear were just standing innocently on the stage, just as they should have been.

"Oh, actually, I might need to; there's some things I forgot to mention last night," the recording continued as Adachi kept a paranoid eye on the camera. "First off, the power system. Junes operates on solar power during the day. It saves operating costs and it's just better to use that kind of clean energy, you know? There are collectors that gather reserve energy during the day, so that's how you have lights at night. Unfortunately, by midnight, there is a limited amount of power left in the reserves, so that's why only the guard office has power to it. Everything in the office uses power though, including the lights, so you might want to keep an eye on your power charge. It's a widget on the tablet, so it's always active. Just lower the camera app and you'll be able to see it."

Adachi hesitated, afraid to take his eyes off the animatronics, but he finally did to see what she was talking about. It looked like he already had ninety-eight percent power left, and it was not really budging; that was a good sign, right?

He shook his head, pulling up the camera functions again, only to see the bunny and the bird had disappeared from the stage. A loud swear escaped from him as he flipped through the cameras, spotting them both together in the dining area, staring at the camera. _Shit…_

"About the animatronics themselves…" Saki continued over the tape, "Take the Bunny and Sakuya the Phoenix are the ones that are most active. They're the ones that are most likely to try and stuff you in a suit. Interestingly enough, Teddie the Bear never moves off the stage, but he _will_ sound the alarms if you try to leave the guard office at night. Trust me, you don't want to do that; his speakers overload, and he doesn't really work as well the next day."

Adachi paused, taking his eyes off the tablet to stare at the recorder. It would have been nice to know this _last night._

"There's one more, but he's a bit unique," she continued as Adachi turned his attention back to the cameras. They had moved a little, and he could see that Take was going to head for his hallway soon. If everything used power… that had to mean those big huge doors did as well. That did not seem before fair, forcing him to wait until the last moment to lock them in order to save power. "Jiraiya mostly keeps to the Frog's Pond, and rarely comes out from behind the curtain, but you might want to take a peek at that area with the camera, just in case. Now he's different from the others; if he _likes you,_ every now and then, he'll hang out outside the door and keep the others from getting to you. In fact, he's hanging around outside the door right now. Hi, Jiraiya!"

A _terrifying_ sounding creak came from over the recording, and Adachi felt his stomach hit his shoes as a result. It did not help that he saw Take had disappeared from the dining area, and he could not help himself; he rolled over and slapped the door closed, just in case. This was just too much…

"If he doesn't like you… well, I'm not sure, but I guess he'd treat you like the others do. He didn't like the guard before me that much, and… well…"

She trailed off, and Adachi felt his heart in his throat as he reached over for the tablet again, checking this "Frog's Pond" area. He swore he could see two needlelike pins of light beyond the still curtain, but he could not tell if it was his imagination or not.

"Anyway, Jiraiya's really hard to see because his eyes don't light up like the others, so if you see him peeking out of the curtain, or if the curtain's moving when you look, you should probably close your door just in case," Saki continued. "If he hangs out by the window, then you'll be fine for the rest of the night, because he won't move until the day shift comes in. If not… well, he probably doesn't like you then."

A soft scraping noise came from the door just then, like Take was trying to knock, and Adachi felt a chill run down his spine. Just then, a low sound came from the other hallway, and he shot over to the door release, catching the sight of red feathers uncomfortably close. _Dammit all to hell…_

"Well, that's all I can think of for right now!" Saki's cheerful voice concluded. "Check your cameras, watch your power and… oh! The doors have lights on them too; that'll help you check for your blind spots in the camera. I'll have another training tape for you tomorrow if you're here!"

The recording fell quiet, and Adachi looked up to see the bunny walking past his window, away from the heavy door. He waited a heartbeat before opening it back up, checking the camera to see that he was lumbering back to the dining area. The damn red chicken had not moved yet, and he wanted to cry at that as he heard a low growling noise coming from the other door. A scream was waiting to be let loose in the back of his throat, but he was afraid that would draw the bunny back toward him.

Adachi stared at the cameras in complete paranoia, finally going to flick the door open when Sakuya moved. He was flipping back and forth between the cameras and the power widget almost obsessively, his heart pounding loudly in his chest, and his breath coming out in rapid gasps. He watched as the bunny stopped in the dining area, staring at that birthday chair again.

"Good, stay there," he whispered at the tablet, flicking over to another camera.

He found himself settling on the Frog's Pond again, and he really swore he could see something shimmering behind the curtain. He whispered for him to stay there too, flicking through the cameras again. Everything seemed fine until he flicked over to one of the "audio only" cameras, and he could _hear something_ rummaging around in the kitchen. His heart hit his throat again, and he had to resist the urge to close the door on that side, as the kitchen was nowhere near the guard office.

He flicked to the camera on the left side of his door again, only to see the rabbit _uncomfortably_ close. That scream he had waiting almost ripped from him as he shoved himself toward the switch, slapping the door closed. He pulled the tablet over so he could look, and the soft knocking came just as he saw the bunny on the camera. Its hand was raised on the camera, fingers moving against the metal like it was trying to claw at it, and the only thing that managed to get him to tear his gaze away from the terrifying sight was a _growling_ sound coming from the other door. He could see Sakuya _just outside,_ and he barely managed to get to the door switch in time.

"Please… please not this again…" he whimpered. "Anything but this again…"

He shook as he went back to the tablet, peering at the cameras, not that he needed to. He could _hear_ them outside the door, and he forced himself to tap away from the camera app so he could see how much power he had left.

"S-seventy percent…?" he squeaked. How had he lost so much in such a short amount of time? How much time _had_ passed? He could not tell, and he had no idea how to bring up any kind of time widget on the tablet. He tried pressing what looked like a settings button, but it just came up with an "Administrator Lock" message; how much did he want to bet that King Moron had it set up like that on purpose?

"Bastard," he muttered under his breath, pulling the camera up again. Take had finally moved away from the door, and he went over to slap it open, flicking over so he could see the bunny hanging out in that dining area again. He let out a breath, frowning as he flicked over to the camera on the other side, only to see Sakuya's face practically pressed up against the camera, glowing eyes nearly taking up the whole screen. Stupid sadistic feather brain…

Adachi shook his head, going back to the Frog's Pond camera… only to let out a shriek of surprise. _Something_ was poking out from the curtain; a large, bulbous head with what he guessed were supposed to be some kind of eye stalks or something. He did not know and he did not care either; all he knew was that thing was hideous, but it was frozen in place, _staring directly at where the camera was._

"Dammit…" he moaned, clutching at the tablet to check on Take and Sakuya again. Take was still hanging around where he was at, but so was Sakuya. Dammit, that bird was going to soak up all of the power he had here!

He heard a thump coming from down the hall, and Adachi reacted before he could even think much on it. His hand went flying for the door lock on the left side, and he swore he saw a white blur before the metal door came sliding down. A loud _pounding_ noise came from the other side that Adachi just barely heard over his own shriek of terror. Oh dammit, what the _hell_ was that?!

The pounding continued, and he _swore_ he heard a wail that might have belonged to a little kid, before everything fell silent. He peered at the camera outside the doors, only to see they were both clear, and he popped them open while gazing in paranoia at the power meter on the tablet. What the… how did he get drained down to fifty percent now? Did keeping the doors closed that long really take up that much power?

He flipped through the cameras, and he saw Take and Sakuya hanging around together again, before flicking over to the Frog's Pond. He saw something white disappearing behind the curtain. It swayed slightly as that glimmering appeared again from beyond, and everything fell still. He allowed himself a chance to breathe, even though he was not entirely sure if he should or not. Those things could come back after him any second and…

Adachi let out a faint whimper, planting his head on the desk as a shuddering breath escaped from his mouth. Oh god, why did he decide to keep working? No amount of money was worth this kind of hell. He managed to drag himself up again when he heard shuffling outside the left door, and he weakly reached over for the door switch, just seeing that damn pink bastard in the door way. He felt too tired and too drained to even be surprised at this point. Just let him survive this night…

That soft tapping came again, and Adachi curled up in his chair; he was going to hear that soft tapping no matter where he went. Anything that tapped around him was going to send him into PTSD-like fits, he could see it already; he would be just like one of those crotchety old war veterans stuck forever in a nursing home. Maybe he'd get lucky and get a hot nurse that he could drool over or something; that would be a nice change for once in his life.

A growling came from the other door then, and he groaned as he had to close the right door again. That left him with both doors closed, and Take and Sakuya on either side of the door, just waiting for him to screw up. He shook his head, grabbing the tablet and checking the power…

"F-fifteen!?" he squeaked. How? When? Why? What happened? He just had half power minutes ago… or was it hours ago? He could not tell; the stress was wearing down on him, to the point where time just seemed to be one massive blur.

Adachi stared down at the floor under the desk, where he had hid himself the night before. He grabbed the tablet, holding it close to his chest as he ducked underneath, pulling the chair close so he could not be seen. He could hear the scraping and growling outside, just barely over the pounding of his heart, and he pulled up the power, watching it slowly going down… down…

With a loud _snap,_ everything around him suddenly died; even the tablet winked out – he did not know _that_ thing drained power too, although the fact that it was plugged into the desk on a long cord probably should have been his first clue. That did not keep him from hugging it to his chest as everything fell silent around him, and he dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, the animatronics relied on the power too…

…until he heard the soft shuffling of footsteps.

Adachi was too scared to even breathe, watching as first a set of fuzzy pink legs, then a pair of knobby bird legs came into the room. They shuffled around, as if confused that what they were expecting to see was not in the room. He clung tightly to the tablet, praying that they would just go away, that they would leave him alone—

Suddenly the chair was ripped out from in front of him.

Two pairs of glowing eyes were right there, staring at him.

Mouths were opened wide.

He was going to die.

Everything happened so fast, that it took Adachi a moment to realize exactly what happened. He had flung his arms over his face in a vain effort to protect himself, yet he lowered them when he realized he was still alive, and he found himself still staring at those eyes. Now, however, the lights of their eyes were off, like the creatures had just had their switches flipped. A moment passed by before they suddenly straightened themselves up, and their feet did not seem to move like before as they rolled themselves out of the office.

"'Ya in there, Squeaks?"

Adachi wanted to cry; it was the old man, from the morning before. Somehow, but some miracle, he had made it to the end of his shift.

Gingerly, he crawled out from under the desk, his pride shattered into a million pieces as the old man came into view. At the moment, he did not care so much; he was _alive,_ and that was what was important more than anything. That did not mean that the old man was not going to stare at him in some mockery of pride.

"Well there, see you made it through your second night," the old man crooned. "Didn't think you would."

Adachi gave him a bland look; he had no idea, did he? He was about to say as much, when the old man wrinkled his nose up, staring down at him.

"Squeaks… did you just piss your pants?"

He stared for a moment, before looking down at himself. Sure enough, there was an embarrassing dark spot, and the distinct smell of urine wafting up from his pants. Adachi almost wished the animatronics had gotten to him; he rather have died by being stuffed in a suit, then die of humiliation like this. He turned, walking out the door the old man was not standing in, though his laughter followed behind him on his way out.


	4. Night Three

_She knew he was dead; she could hear the screaming all the way from the kitchen._

_What was more terrifying was the silence that followed, and her heart sounded impossibly loud as she tried to huddle as far back into the kitchen as she could. She was terrified that the monster could hear it, and even if he could not, with her bright red yukata it was impossible to miss her. If the monster came into the kitchen, if he started rummaging around…_

_She curled up on herself, wanting to cry, but she was too scared to. She could hear the sound of feet approaching, knowing the monster was heading right for her and knowing that he would find her. He was there shortly, blotting out what little light was coming from the doorway and staring into the room. She huddled as far back as she could, afraid to even breathe as she caught the glint of a claw and the promise of death that it brought._

_She heard him shuffle into the room, through the room, the occasional clatter of pots making her heart leap up in her throat, but she forced herself to be quiet. If she made a noise…_

_After what felt like hours, the silence came once again, but she dare not move from her spot. What if he did not really leave? What if he was waiting, just outside of her hiding spot, waiting for her to come out? What if she was already dead, the monster was just waiting for the opportunity to strike?_

_The anxiety was weighing on her like a heavy, suffocating blanket, and she finally could not take it anymore. She finally poked her head out, looking back and forth and not seeing anyone. Hesitantly, she pulled herself out, hoping that maybe, just maybe, she would be able to keep her life…_

_"Hello there, little birdy…"_

_She screamed, and barely had the chance to turn around before the claw was biting into her chest, a pleasant sounding song flooding her ears as she faded away…_

~.oOOo.~ 

"Adachi… you okay?"

Adachi stared bleary eyed at Dojima, barely conscious of the fact that they were sitting together at the bar, enjoying a beer before he had to go off for his next shift. He had barely gotten any sleep the morning before, and this morning… when he was not dreaming about children being murdered, his dreams were filled with visions of killer bunnies and birds, cute and fluffy and ready to tear him to pieces. He just barely managed to get a straight hour of sleep before he finally gave up, packing some boxes and trying desperately not to think of what was waiting for him later that night.

"Adachi?"

"M'fine," he lied, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. "Just having trouble adjusting to my new schedule, 'ya know?"

Dojima did not look terribly convinced, but Adachi had always been a terrible liar. He could never pull off the "bad cop" part of that routine, and often found himself sputtering and sheepish when he tried until Dojima would finally hit him over the head. He knew his old partner and mentor was not buying his excuse, but there was no way he could tell him the truth. Who would believe that he kept going back to work at a place, where he essentially left his life in the hands of possessed animatronics?

"Hn…" he finally muttered after a moment, taking a swig from his beer. "…if it's too much, don't push yourself. You need your health, 'ya know."

 _His health;_ maybe he would be more agreeable with that if he could get paid for the two days he worked and leave, but with having to work the whole week, he was stuck. He did not even want to tell Dojima how much of a bad idea it was to even suggest he take this job; he was trapped in hell, and there was not a damn thing he could do about it outside of cutting his losses and running, and considering his current situation, that was not much of an option.

"Yeah, I know," he muttered under his breath, downing the rest of his drink before saying his goodbyes to his old partner, hoping that it would not be the last time he would see him.

He had barely entered the building, when he was called in to the manager's office. Looks of sympathy were tossed his way as he stalked toward King Moron's throne room, clenching his fists at his sides and trying not to blow up as he entered the room. The bucked tooth asshole was grinning so wide that it looked like his teeth took over his entire face, and Adachi would have loved for nothing more than to punch him in those overly huge teeth.

"So… what's this I hear about you pissin' your pants this morning?"

Forget the teeth, he was just going to punch him wherever it would hurt the most.

"Let me make one thing clear to you," Morooka began again, "we have certain hygienic guidelines to follow here at Junes. Just because you're on the nightshift, doesn't mean you don't have to follow them. If you need to use the bathroom, then use the damn bathroom, don't go in your damn pants. We clear on that?"

Right; like he was going to go _all the way to the bathroom_ with those nightmares hanging around outside his door. Despite the fact that he was still coming back to this dump, he actually enjoyed living.

"Yeah. Clear," he managed to get out without grinding his teeth.

Morooka waved him off like a peasant, and Adachi managed to close the door calmly and get all the way to the shipping area before he screamed. It did not go unnoticed, and he spotted Namatame looking up from where he was loading a box off of his truck. The other man smiled faintly, wheeling the box toward him.

"Bad night already?" he asked. "Your shift hasn't even started."

Adachi just let out a sigh. "Just… I hate this place already. Waiting out the week so I can get paid and split."

Namatame gave him a sympathetic look. "They got you with the, 'Only get paid at the end of the week,' thing too, hunh?" he asked. "I'm sure you'll do fine… just hang in there. You really looked like a zombie yesterday; I called out to you, but you didn't seem to hear me."

"Yeah, well… there were some important orientation things they _missed,"_ Adachi grumbled, getting another sympathetic look in return. Namatame clapped him on the shoulder, encouraging him to hang in there again, before going off on his way.

A heavy sigh escaped from Adachi, and he hung out around the time clock, waiting for the time he could clock in for his shift. He was dragging his feet to the guard office once he did, watching everyone pass by him as they left for the evening, feeling like a man going off to his death sentence. The smell of bleach was strong in the guard office that night, and Adachi got the sinking suspicion that they cleaned up under the desk, just to make his humiliation at soiling himself that much worse.

"Fuck you guys," he muttered under his breath, grabbing the tablet and the "Night Three Training" tape and preparing himself for hell.

"Hey, Saki again!" came the familiar voice over the tape recorder. "Night three, hunh? You're doing great! Most people don't last this long. I mean… you know, they usually move on to other things by now. I-I'm not implying that they died… that's not what I meant."

"Sure you didn't," Adachi mumbled under his breath, keeping a paranoid eye on the cameras. He was ready for these bastards today, and he spotted Take away from his spot already. Damn little shit bunny.

"A-anyway, I better not take up too much of your time; things start getting real tonight," she continued, and Adachi spared a glare at the tape. "Here's a suggestion for when the power goes out: play dead. You know, go limp. There's a pretty high chance they'll think you're an empty costume instead, and they'll either ignore you, or toss you in the supply closet. If they do that, you want to be extra careful to be completely still. It's… really frightening in that closet; that's where what's left of the animatronic that did the biting a few years ago is."

Adachi felt his blood run cold at that, and he shuddered as he flicked through the cameras, seeing the bird had moved from its position as well. He let out an annoyed huff, flicking around until he heard something banging around in the kitchen. That did not help, as he remembered the nightmare from that morning…

"Anyway, even if it's scary, it helps during the rainy season. The power collectors don't get that much sunlight, so… you're almost guaranteed to run out of power then," Saki continued. "Well, good luck. I'll leave you to it."

The tape fell quiet, and Adachi had to roll over and close the door at his right when he saw the big chicken approaching. He saw it peering at him in the window, and he stuck his tongue out at the creepy thing, just daring it to try and get into the room.

It was strange, but he felt surprisingly comfortable that night, almost like he was getting used to doing this job. He did not know how he felt about getting used to staring death in the face like this. Still the minutes ticked by, and he was settling into a rhythm: flick through the cameras, check his power, lower and raise the doors as needed, and keep a damn eye on the Frog's Pond. The sight of the eye stalked freak still made him jump, especially when he poked his head out from behind the curtain finally, but minutes later he had yet to move from his spot, while Take and Sakuya alternated back and forth with harassing him. As weird as it was, he felt confident that he was going to survive the night with his sanity intact.

And then things went wrong.

Adachi got a brief glimpse of Jiraiya running down the hall, and just barely managed to get the door closed before he showed up. He looked over to the other door as the pounding noises came from behind him, and he could vaguely hear a shuffling sound. Swallowing, he reached out for the door light… only to see the face of that _damn bird_ hiding in the shadows of the window. He slapped the door switch, hearing his heart hammering in his ears as the bird growled at the door – that damn chicken was getting smarter, forcing him to use his energy sucking lights like that! The pounding continued at the door, before both sounds finally died.

He let out a shuddering breath, reaching over to the door light to see the bird still there, _staring right at him._ The light snapped off, and he waited a heartbeat, before pressing it again to see that damn thing still standing there.

"Y-you're going to be a bitch and hang out there all night aren't you?" he whimpered.

He wanted to curl up under the desk again, but he managed to resist the urge. Instead he grabbed for the tablet, checking the camera right outside his doors. He couldn't see the bird – of course, she was in his blind spot – but he could not see anything by the other door either. He hesitated a moment, trying the light and _seeing a shadow on the wall._

"N-nope, not opening that door either…" he muttered, clenching at the tablet.

Adachi hesitated, only able to hear the drum of his heart in his chest. He tried the lights once more, only to see the shadow and the face of Sakuya in the windows again. Dammit, why were they hanging around like this? Could they tell he was scared out of his mind right now? He waited again, checking the power on his tablet and wanting to cry. Why was it already so low?

He looked away from it, checking the lights again to see they finally left, and he let out a breath as he was able to open the doors. It was not much of a comfort; he would have preferred to have enough power to keep the doors closed all night. He flopped back in his chair before looking through the cameras again, trying to keep his heart from jumping up in his chest. He could see the frog – he guessed that thing was supposed to be a frog – already peeking out from behind his curtain.

 _"Dammit…"_ he muttered under his breath, checking the other cameras. The bunny and bird were hanging out in the dining area, which was fine, they could stay there. Even as he stared at them though, he could hear something creaking outside his door, and he flipped through the cameras near him to see… absolutely nothing.

Adachi planted a hand over his eyes, letting out a sob. He was freaking out, the thought of his inevitable death looming over his head finally making him lose it. His breath came out in quick gasps, and he forced himself to just rub his hand over his eyes and look back on the cameras. There were the two still in the dining area, looking like they were talking to each other, and the frog critter was still poking his head out and staring at the camera. He forced himself to slow his breathing down… but just then, some weird, distorted voice filled his ears.

He shot up from his seat, looking around and trying to figure out what caused that. A quick glance at the cameras showed everyone was still in their places, so what the hell was going on with the weird noises!? He planted a hand over his face, rubbing at his cheeks and eyes, only to hear the sound of feet pattering around the halls around him, followed by the sound of children screaming and laughing. He wanted to scream himself as he checked the cameras yet again, and outside of the bird moving a little bit toward the direction of the kitchen, nothing much changed.

"Oh, you bastards are screwing with my head now, aren't you?" he demanded, checking on the Frog's Pond. Jiraiya seemed content with leaning out of his hiding spot and staring at the camera. He even checked the stage to see that Teddie was still standing there unmoving, staring out into nothing with his creepy yellow eyes.

So what the hell was making those _noises?!_

Adachi had to remind himself to breathe, checking the other cameras. Everything seemed fine until he got to the one camera just outside his door. Normally, there were posters there of Teddie and his crew rocking out with instruments on stage, but they had all been torn down. In their place, was just the words, "I'm Here," written in what looked like blood.

He shot away from the tablet at that, slapping the light on the door hoping to see that the stupid posters were actually still there, but instead all he saw was ruffled red feathers.

 _"Shit!"_ he shouted, fumbling and barely getting the door switch down in time.

He could not stop his heart from trying to beat out of his chest, a faint whimpering escaping from him as he heard the sound of feet running along the other hall. Shit, _the damn Pond…!_ He slapped the other door closed, and just in time as the pounding noises came a moment later.

"I'm gonna run out of power…" he whimpered, looking around frantically. He was going to die, he was dead, and they were just going to find his eyeballs dangling from a stupid animatronic suit.

Suddenly, all the noises _stopped,_ and Adachi's wide, paranoid eyes flicked back and forth between the two doors. Should he open them? Were they gone? He was just about to reach over and test one of the door lights, when they both suddenly _opened on their own._ He was too afraid to even scream, the horrifying thought entering his head that they had learned how to get the doors open from the outside. Any second now Sakuya or Jiraiya were going to poke their heads in through the door frame and…

…the old man poked his head inside instead.

"Hey, Squeaks! You're looking mighty okay this morning," the old man said. "So are you pants, thank goodness."

Adachi stared at the old man for a long moment, his mouth working, but no sound coming out. It was six AM? Already? But it felt like only an hour at most had passed by…? A few minutes ticked by before he finally near melted, falling back against the far wall and planting his hands over his face. He… actually made it, all the way to six in the morning without running out of power. How…?

"Uh, Squeaks? Y'all right there?"

"Y-yeah…" he muttered, but he knew that was a lie. He was never going to be all right; not until the last day of his work week when he collected his check and told this company to go get stuffed.


	5. Night Four

_There were just two of them left._

_He had opted to hide in the storage closet once they had managed to get away from the man; it was the only door in the place that he could immediately see, and there was the possibility of improvised weapons he could use. Unfortunately, there had not been much in the place, as it only seemed like there were extra parts for the costumed animatronics. He was gripping one of those extra parts now – a spare foam sword from his favorite. There was no telling how effective it would be, but after hearing two of the others scream in agony, it was better than nothing._

_He had the storage closet open just a crack, and could see the man in the darkness of the floor, watching him fiddling around with the Sakuya suit. He had gone off to open them all, and that was how they had managed to escape… but when he went back to the loading area and found them gone, that was when their nightmare began._

_The man was humming a tune to himself as he zipped the suit up, mumbling how red would blend in nicely with the feathers. He forced back a shudder, her screams he had heard all the way from the kitchen coming fresh to his mind. No, he couldn't freak out, he couldn't panic; it was just him and his best friend that were left, and he could already see the man turning toward the curtain at the Frog's Pond, where he was hiding…_

_He came out from his hiding place then, determined to put a stop to this monster before he could get to the first best friend he had ever made. His grip on the foam sword tightened as he snuck up behind him… before charging forward, striking out at the man with all the strength he had in his body. The man let out an alarmed noise, spinning around with rage gleaming in his eyes. He hesitated, fear gripping him at the sight of that twisted expression, but the man lashing out at his sword with his own, very real weapon snapped him out of it. He struck out again, knocking the man's knife out of his hands and sending it skidding across the floor._

_His triumph was very short lived. Seething in rage, the man wrapped his larger hands around his neck, lifting him up and rushing forward. He panicked, clawing at the man's hands and kicking out at him as hard as he could, but in the end it was all for nothing. Something shot through his back as they came to a sudden stop, and he looked down as the man pulled his hands away to see a metal crossbeam sticking out from his chest._

_The man let out an amused chuckle, grabbing him again only to stuff him further into the animatronic he had impacted against – his favorite one, of course._

_"Well, you were gonna end up in here anyway," he said, humming to himself as he started to zip the costume up. Tears blurred his vision as the edges started to darken… but not before he caught sight of the curtain fluttering in the Frog's Pond as his best friend dashed out from behind it, heading for the guard office…_

~.oOOo.~ 

"Adachi!"

Adachi let out a snort, only to have his head fall straight down into his – now cold – bowl of ramen noodles. He choked as it splashed all over him, thankfully only getting broth all over his undershirt. It did not keep him from letting out a groan as he lifted his head up, staring around blearily at the other patrons of the Aiya restaurant, before settling on Dojima again.

"Wha…? Is the investigation over…?"

Dojima frowned, grabbing him by the head and forcing him closer. He stared into his blood shot eyes framed with dark circles, and Adachi didn't have the energy to try and stop him.

"Have you been sleeping at all?" he asked, finally letting him go.

"O-of course I have," Adachi lied pitifully. It was not a _complete_ lie, he was getting about fifteen minutes of sleep filled with nightmares of children dying horribly on top of killer bunnies and birdies and froggies. Of course, he was also steadily losing his mind from the nightmares pursuing him both at work and at home, and this was on top of the more mundane, waking nightmares of receiving his meager last paycheck from his old job as well as the reminder that he needed to be out of his apartment by the end of the month.

He hated his life.

"You're lying," Dojima stated, not that he needed to. "What the hell is really going on?"

Adachi just let out a stressed sigh, poking at his noodles. "…you wouldn't believe me even if I told you," he mumbled, missing the hurt look that crossed his old partner's face in favor of slurping up what was left of his dinner. "It's just… a harder job than I thought. That's all. I'm just… going to make it through the week. That's all."

"Why?" Dojima asked. "This is obviously affecting you – badly at that. Why are you still putting yourself through this?"

He let out an embarrassed noise; there was no way he was going to admit he did not read the fine print before signing all the paper work, so he just waved his concern off.

"D-don't worry about it, Dojima-san," he assured him. "Once I get my pay for the week, everything'll be fine. Heck, maybe I'll even treat you to noodles."

Dojima did not look convinced as Adachi stood, thanking him for the meal, before heading out of the restaurant. Once he was out of his sight was when Adachi looked like he was going to break down, the weight of what he was heading toward making his slouch even worse than usual. He thought for sure he was going to die last night, that the power was going to go out and that frog would get its overly large hands on him. His sanity was shredding itself into fine little bits, and soon he was just going to completely lose it… maybe then death would be preferable to the vegetable he would be otherwise.

"Adachi-san!"

He paused, realizing that he had zoned out in his death march toward the store. The Junes logo loomed above him, and he felt a cold, creeping feeling go up his spine. Damn… two more nights… could he really do this? Could he really make it all the way to the end of his five-day work week and get his promised paycheck?

"Adachi-san!" the familiar voice shouted again, and he pressed a hand over his eyes, trying to get himself back together. No, he needed to calm the hell down. A moment passed as he just breathed, before he finally turned around to see the bitty pretend detective from a couple days ago. Now, if only he could remember what her name was…

"Oh, hey there, little detective," he said, giving up on trying to remember.

She shot a bitter frown at him. "Please don't make up ridiculous nicknames, just because you can't remember my name," she snapped. "It's Shirogane Naoto."

"Right, right, the generic boy's name," Adachi replied, getting her to frown even harder. Normally he kept such comments to himself, but with how tired he was, he just did not care at the moment. "So, what do you need from me now?"

The private investigator hesitated, and it was obvious to him she was debating just leaving him to rot in his hell. It was a long moment before she finally decided to stick to her resolve, planting a hand on her hip as she focused him with a determined look.

"Your cooperation," she began. "It's obvious that events are transpiring in this store that are unlawful, and clearly dangerous. I can tell just by looking at you."

"Congrats on that," Adachi replied dryly. "Look, I'm not about to get myself fired before the week is up, okay? Last thing I need is for King Moron to hear that I've been talking to a private investigator."

"Adachi-san, four children _died_ in this building," she hissed at him, clearly starting to get annoyed with his attitude. "The only thing that was found of them were some blood stains in the animatronics. Deaths and missing persons have been traced back to this store ever since then. As a former detective, you _can't_ tell me you don't care!"

He fixed her with a nonplussed look; oh, he knew that kids were murdered in this place. He got to dream about it every single damn morning. There was no way he could bring himself to focus on it; he just wanted to get his pay from having to deal with this hell and leave. Maybe then the nightmares would stop, and he would not have to hear that creepy humming or the screams of dead children ever again.

"I don't care," he snapped, turning to go into the building.

For once, he did not need to go into King Moron's office before his shift, so he took his time when he arrived, going to a bathroom to toss on his bright purple target of a uniform shirt and wash up his face. He even stopped by the food court to grab a much needed coffee from one of the stands, if only so it would make surviving the next six hours that much easier… hopefully. He made his way to the docking area, spotting Namatame unloading as usual, and the older man gave a friendly wave once he spotted him. He finished dropping off the last package from his truck, before going over to where Adachi was, smiling as usual.

"Forth night, hunh?" he asked. "Almost done with your week."

"Almost done for good," Adachi pointed out. "Just one more night after this, then I'm taking my paycheck and getting the hell out of here."

Namatame's friendly expression turned sympathetic. "A shame… a lot of people can't seem to handle this job. I've seen a lot of weekend guards come and go; the girl that was the week guard lasted for so long, I thought she was never going to leave this place."

"Yeah, well, lucky for her she got to go to college," Adachi replied, sipping at his nice and warm coffee and trying not to shudder. Just how many people had died working this night shift? How often did people have to turn a blind eye to what was going on in this place? How had they not been _shut down_ by now?!

"So what will you do after this place?" Namatame asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. Adachi shrugged in response.

"Not sure, really. Just anywhere's better than here."

They bantered back and forth, before Adachi had to go clock in and start his shift. As usual, people passed by him as he headed back for the guard office, blissfully unaware – or willfully ignorant – of the fact that he was a dead man walking. That any morning, the old man could come in, and have to scrub his mangled body out of an animatronic suit. He squeezed his eyes shut at the thought, rubbing at them before finishing off his coffee and chucking it in the waste bin.

First thing was first, before he even put in the "Night Four Training" tape: check the cameras. Take, Sakuya, and Jiraiya were all quiet in their respective locations, and he kept a paranoid eye especially on Jiraiya as he slid in the tape for his training. He had no idea what else Saki could possibly cover, but maybe she had some really helpful suggestions: like an emergency shut off for the animatronics?

He could hope for that, right?

"Hello, new guy! It's Saki again!" the voice from the tape recorder flooded out of the speaker, sounding much happier than even the last time. Then again, if Adachi was leaving this place, he would be really damn happy too. "Wow, night four, hunh? I knew you could do it.

"Hey, I'm not going to be here tomorrow to leave you a message. King Moron agreed to let me leave a day early so I could finish packing for college. Of course I don't get _paid,_ but… oh well."

"Bastard…" Adachi muttered under his breath.

"But listen," the recording continued, "if you've made it this far, you can handle this job easily. Just remember everything I told you: check your cameras, conserve power, and check your blind spots. And… well, I hope Jiraiya likes you too; he's been a big help in looking after me these past three years, and he… was really sweet…"

She trailed off, that happy tone of her voice going with it, and Adachi could not help but stare at the tape. Wait… did this girl know something about those murdered kids? When she spoke up again, she sounded like she was on the verge of tears; it could not be that she was actually going to miss this nightmare job… no one in the world could be that crazy. Adachi let out a huff, glancing at the cameras to see they still had not moved yet, and almost wishing he had listened a little more to what the bitty detective had to say.

"Anyway, you—" Saki began, but she cut herself off as a familiar creaking noise came over the tape. His blood ran cold as the sound of her pushing the chair out as she stood up came next, and he glanced at his left door, able to picture the big frog animatronic leaning into the office. "Jiraiya? What's wrong?"

There was a shuffling noise, and… things got worse. A panicked noise came from Saki, and Adachi had to push himself away from the desk, eyes widening in terror.

"Jiraiya! Jiraiya, no! Stop! Hana-cha—!"

There was a sickening _crack_ over the tape, followed by a slow, agonizing sounding creaking noise, before the recording finally fell silent. A faint whimpering sound came next, and it took Adachi a moment to realize that it came from him. The _noises_ from the night before started up again after that, and the shuffling of feet running up and down the corridors surrounded him. He immediately grabbed up the tablet, checking over the cameras to see they _still_ had not moved, and only Teddie's glowing eyes from the stage were staring out at the camera. The others showed no sign of life, and even the Frog's Pond curtain remained undisturbed.

"What the hell…" he whimpered.

He flicked through the cameras again, settling on the one just outside his right hand door. Instead of the Teddie gang posters, he could see newspaper clippings on the walls, and he brought the tablet really close to his face, squinting to see what they were saying. He could only read the headlines, but that was more than enough:

**FOUR MISSING IN LOCAL FAMILY STORE**

**MISSING CHILDREN PRESUMED DEAD AS INVESTIGATION CONTINUES**

**FATHER RESIGNS FROM JUNES CORP AFTER DEATH OF SON**

**MISSING CHILDREN CASE GOES UNSOLVED; MURDERER STILL AT LARGE**

He blinked again, and the newspaper clippings were gone, replaced with the corny posters that were supposed to be there. Adachi felt his heart flip in his chest, and he forced himself to put the tablet down. The shuffling sounds surrounded him again, forcing him to check his door lights… but nothing was there, and even checking the stage and the Frog's Pond again showed that no one had moved yet.

_What the hell was making that noise?_

"C'mon, you bastards, quit screwing with me…" he muttered under his breath, flicking through the cameras again and half expecting to see something trolling through the hallways. He noticed another poster had changed, this one just outside of his left door. Normally it showed a picture of Jiraiya striking what was supposed to be a cool pose, but instead it had changed to some kind of warrior guy, holding a foam sword. Adachi frowned, trying to remember where he had seen that animatronic before… when the face of the warrior guy on the poster suddenly _turned toward the camera._

Adachi screamed, almost throwing the tablet down on the desk as whisperings of, "I'm here, I'm here…" filled his ears. He looked around frantically, before slapping the doors closed against his better judgment. It did not stop the whispers; in fact it made them sound more distorted as he looked around his little office fearfully. No… there was something out there, he knew it. He could not open those doors, but he was going to waste his power if he left them closed…

His hands shaking, he grabbed for the tablet again, having to swipe at the screen a number of times just to change camera, his was trembling so bad. The animatronics _still_ had not left their positions, and he could not even see the faint glimmer of Jiraiya's eyes behind the Frog's Pond curtain. What the hell was going on…?

"Calm down, Adachi…" he told himself, forcing himself to take deep breaths. "Calm down… it's okay. They're not moving… they're taking a break tonight, it looks like… Everything's going to be okay…"

Still, he was not exactly willing to open the doors, not with the strange noises still coming from the outside. Hesitantly, he grabbed up the tablet again, checking each of the cameras once more. Everything was calm and peaceful on the stage and the Frog's Pond. What he could see of the storage room was fine as well; just a bunch of creepy, empty heads staring at him, nothing bad. The kitchens did not have a video feed, but he could not hear any pots or pans banging around, so no one was in there. The corridor to his right was perfectly clear…

…except the posters were gone again, and that, "I'm here," message was written all over the walls. He bit back a whimper, trying to tell himself he was imagining it, that there was no way that was really there as he moved to the camera just outside his right door. He could see wires dangling from the ceiling, reminding him of a noose that he could hang himself from, and he had to push that morbid thought out of his mind.

Adachi rubbed a hand over his eyes, feeling his heart pounding loudly in his chest as those whispers continued around him. No, he had to pull himself together. Nothing was actually here; there could not be anything in here when he had both doors closed like he did. He went back to the cameras, seeing the corridor leading to his left door was clear; there was no one standing inside, no one making a run for his office.

…but the camera just outside his door…

That poster had changed again, this time showing a close up of the warrior guy's mask. He jumped, setting the tablet down… only to feel his arm brush up against something. He turned to look… and instantly regretted it.

Sitting slumped over like a corpse next to him was that warrior animatronic, despite the fact that both his doors were closed. Adachi near leapt out of his chair, too scared to try and open a door and make a break for it, too scared to do anything. The warrior thing was just _sitting there,_ not doing anything, but the more he stared at it, the more he swore he saw its arms twitch and move. It was slowly coming to life before him, and he could not even scream as the, "I'M HERE, I'M HERE," got louder and louder in his head, drowning out the sound of his own frantic heartbeat.

"N-no…" he whimpered. "Y-you can't be in here… the doors are locked…!"

That did not seem to matter to this animatronic as it finally lifted its head toward him, sightless, empty eyes staring directly at him. Adachi scrambled away, pressing himself into a corner as if that would help as the thing lifted itself up, throwing itself at him. It was close, so close that all Adachi could see was the thing's mask, filling his vision as the whispers turned to outright screams. He swore he could see through that mask, to a pair of wide, terrified grey eyes, before everything turned black.

~.oOOo.~ 

_"…wake…you…"_

He stirred, a hand twitching unseen. Was something calling out to him…?

_"Squeaks… c'mon… up…"_

Squeaks… He knew that voice…?

_"Aw, dammit… not another one…"_

That got him to move, and Adachi found his eyes snapping open wide. He was staring directly at the empty head of Take the Bunny, and he screamed in surprise, shooting upright… or at least trying to. His head impacted against something metal above him, forcing him to flop back down as someone else in the room screamed.

Adachi clutched at his head, feeling tired and worn down… but somehow still alive, and not stuffed into an animatronic suit. He glanced down, seeing the old man staring up at him with wide eyes, and he realized he was in the storage room, just like Saki said would happen if he played dead after the power went out. Apparently, whatever… _thing_ he had seen the night before had all been in his head; he must have fainted, and when the power went out from both doors being locked, the animatronics came and stuffed him in here, thinking he was an empty suit.

He could not believe that actually worked.

"S-Squeaks, what're you doing in here, sleepin' on the job like that?" the old man finally asked, recovering from the shock of Adachi actually still being alive. He shot him an irritable look, knowing full well the old fart really thought he was another corpse he was going to have to clean up.

He did not even bother to comment as he groaned, forcing himself to roll out from the shelf he was stuffed on. Unfortunately, he misjudged how far he was from the ground, and nearly fell over once he landed…

…right on top of a broken animatronic.

Adachi's eyes went wide, taking in the familiar warrior character he had seen the night before. It was not put together, not like the corpse that had suddenly appeared in his office. The legs were standing some distance away, the arms propped up next to them, while he was holding onto the upper portion for balance. The jaw was hanging loosely, like it had been broken by something, and he swore he could see a faint glimmer of old blood…

He screamed before he could stop himself, jumping away from the broken animatronic. Wide eyes went up to the old man, who looked like he was _used to_ seeing a reaction like that, like he had seen it so many times before. Adachi threw himself out of the storage closet before he could even think on the implications of that, his heart hammering loudly in his chest. He could barely process anything as he stumbled away, hearing the animatronics on the stage starting up for the first time that day as some brave parents dropped their kids off in the play area. All he could focus on was clocking out and getting home, away from this ungodly nightmare…

A truck was already at the loading docks when he passed by, and he caught sight of two employees unloading something that made his blood turn cold, and he had to stop and stare. It was another animatronic, this one slightly resembling a humanoid slug. If he knew his legends well enough, he knew exactly where that was going, which meant…

"Wow, Tsunade came out really good," one of the employees was saying. "You'd never think someone was—"

"Shh!" the other employee hissed, glancing over at Adachi.

There was a long, awkward moment where he just stood there, eyes wide in… something. Fright? Disbelief? He was not even sure any more. All he knew was that minutes passed by before he finally turned around, numbly making his way to the time clock so he could leave.

Just… one more night.


	6. Night Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you would like to listen to the horrors Adachi is treated to later in this chapter, you can play it [here](http://www.mediafire.com/listen/6pk7bbl61u55jdw/nevermore_call_reversed.mp3).

_They were all dead, and he was the only one left._

_He saw the monster busy with the Izanagi suit, and he didn't want to think about what was happening there. He knew the inn girl was dead – he heard her screams from the kitchen – and so was the big guy. So… he could only guess his best friend was dead now too, and it made him sick. He had finally made a friend in this backwater town, finally found someone that helped make this boring town that much more fun… and now he was gone._

_He forced himself not to think about it as he slipped out from behind the curtain at the Frog's Pond, bolting for the security guard office. His father had hidden a key there, one that would let him into the manager's office; it was one of two places in the building that had a phone to call outside of the store. If he could get to his dad's office and lock it, he'd be able to call out and get this jerk arrested for killing his friends._

_He made it to the guard office without incident, his tiny hands wrapping around the knob… but the door was locked up tight. He panicked, tiny fists banging hard against the door, as if that were enough for it to open, but all it did was draw the monster's attention to him. He looked up in fear as he saw the man look away from the Izanagi suit, his heart leaping up into his throat at his mistake._

_"No hopping away now, little froggy…"_

_Like he was going to listen; he ran as soon as he saw the man starting toward him, fear making his heart pound as he passed by the closed up shipping area, all the way to the managerial offices. He made it to his father's office, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, his father forgot to lock the door before leaving that day, but that was too much to hope for. Like the guard office, the knob didn't budge when he grabbed it, and his tiny fists pounded against the door in despair._

_"Dad…!" he cried as the footsteps of the mad man got closer, humming that creepy song he had been humming all night. "Dad, save me!"_

_He turned around as that song got louder, pressing himself against the door, as if that would help him melt into his father's office._

_"Dad! Save me!" he screamed as the monster raised his knife, the blade glinting red in the dim moonlight filtering in from the skylight above…_

~.oOOo.~ 

The skies above had been dreary when he trudged home from work, but after his fitful attempts at sleep, it was outright pouring. Adachi felt his heart hit his shoes as he watched the rain continue to come down through the day, the news forecast playing in the background and letting him know the rain would continue well into the night. He knew what that meant, of course, from one of the messages Saki had left: he would barely have any power to get through the night tonight.

He was going to die.

It felt like a death march through the rain as he made his way to work later that evening, feeling his heart pounding harder the closer he got to the building. Naoto was not around to harass him this time, and everyone was looking at him like he was a dead man walking, not that he did not know that already. Even Namatame did not look so certain about his chances at the moment, and their usual friendly chat was short and nervous before Adachi finally trudged off to the guard office.

He flopped down into his seat, listening to the sounds of the lights turning off through the building, before he finally grabbed up the security tablet so he could check the power widget, and… it felt like his heart seized up in his chest:

He only had fifty percent power.

He had to last six hours on fifty percent power.

"I'm gonna die…" he whimpered, shaking so hard that he swore he heard the tablet rattling. It took him a moment to realize that the rattling sound was in fact real, and that it was coming from the cord tapping against something. Glancing down at what it was made his blood run cold: a tape cassette marked "Night Five Training" in familiar neat and curly handwriting.

"You're dead…" he whispered to the tape, afraid to even touch it. His heart was pounding like a drum in his chest, and he swore he was going to be sick as he stared at the thing like it was going to bite him.

The faint sound of creaking metal in the distance snapped him out of it, and he glanced down at the tablet, pulling up the cameras. Everyone was in their proper place, and the curtain at the Frog's Pond remained undisturbed. If they were going to be civil, even if it was just for now… maybe something important was on that tape?

His gut twisted and folded in on itself, and finally he grabbed up the stupid tape and shoved it into the player. Of course he regretted it as soon as the tape started to play.

There was no voice this time, and most of the recording was blasted with static and electronic beeps, but he distinctly heard a music box-like song being played. What made it worse was he recognized it; despite the fact that the static was overwhelming at times and it was clearly being played backwards, it was that _same damn song_ that had haunted his nightmares ever since he started this stupid job.

Adachi's heart leapt up into his throat as the recording suddenly snapped off, and that metal on metal creaking came again, louder this time. He reached out, snapping at one of the lights, only to see pink and fuzzy standing _right in the doorway._ The door was down even as he screamed in surprise, heart hammering hard enough to make him wonder if he was going to drop dead from a heart attack.

Terrified, he checked the other door as well, only to see Sakuya's ruffled red feathers standing just in the door as well. He could not even find the voice to scream that time as he slapped the door closed, shaking all over. No, why were they out!? Had they snuck out while he sat there, petrified from the recording?! Didn't they know he was operating on only half power?!

"You asses!" he snapped before he could stop himself. "Just give me _one_ easy night so I never have to see your ugly faces again!"

He let out an annoyed huff, checking the lights, only to see their shadows in the windows; dammit, they were just going to stand there and take up the meager power he had left to him! Adachi grabbed the tablet, bringing up the cameras again, only to see Jiraiya out from behind the curtain, ready to start sprinting down the hallway. As soon as the camera focused on him, however, his head turned, eyestalks _staring right at him._

"Oh you damn…!" Adachi grumbled, checking the lights again. The birdbrain was still there, but Take had finally left… but what good would it do him if Jiraiya was about to charge his door? Just as he thought that, a loud _pounding_ came from the other side of the door, making him nearly jump out of his skin; that stupid frog!

"Go the hell away!" he shouted at the door, not that it did him much good. Jiraiya just pounded against it again to be a pain, before the room fell quiet again.

Adachi just stood there for a long moment, listening to the sound of his heart trying to explode out of his chest, before he checked the door lights. There were no shadows in the windows, so he flicked open the doors and grabbed up the tablet. The bird was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear the faint sounds of pots clanging from the kitchen – the only room that did not have a video feed. The bunny was close, but he was not just there yet; if he could hold off and wait until they appeared right in his doorway, then maybe, just maybe, he might have a chance of surviving the night.

That hope was dashed as soon as he checked his power meter though; he was already down to forty percent power after that little stunt. Checking the cameras again, he could see Jiraiya peeking out from behind his curtain, just waiting for the chance to charge his door again.

"You're taking my power away, aren't you?" he asked the screen, before glancing at the door. Just his luck that the doors would take extra power every time the damn frog slammed his fists against them.

He checked the light, spotting the bunny uncomfortably close to the door, before snapping it shut and trying not to shake. How was he supposed to survive the night light this?! How the hell had Saki managed to do this for _three years_ before she finally was killed by that demented frog?! He wanted to go back in time, to yell at Dojima-san for even suggesting he take this stupid job…!

The sounds from the kitchen suddenly stopped, and Adachi checked his light, only to see feathers in that right door. He snapped it shut immediately, and that _damn pounding_ came from the other door again; dammit, they really wanted him dead tonight!

Adachi swore loudly, continually checking the cameras, checking the door lights, and snapping the doors closed. He had no idea how much time he had left in this hell hole, but he had to survive; it was his _last damn night._ There was no way he was going to let these things get to him! After what felt like days, though, he checked his power only to see that it was down to five percent, and his heart leapt up into his throat. How much time had passed? How much longer did he need to go?

He could hear groans and screams and children laughing, and that _damn_ Junes jingle all around him, and snapping on the lights showed the bunny and the bird getting too damn close again. He smacked both doors closed, trying not to scream; he was going to run out of power with them like this! Just as he thought that, the banging came at his door again, and he just did scream then, his heart pounding and his hands sweating. Please… please let him survive…!

Everything around him fell silent, and Adachi hazard a glance at the tablet: one percent power left, and then everything around him would die. A thick lump settled in his throat, and he was too scared to even jump as the tape recorder activated itself, playing that damn backward song once again. He could hear rumbling from outside, and a loud _bang_ of thunder sent vibrations through the building as the power cut out completely.

Adachi's heart froze in his chest and he knew that he would be staring down death in the form of a cuddly animatronic, but he was too scared to do anything. He backed away from the tablet, trembling in fear… and backing right into something solid. There was a tense moment where he could not even find the voice to scream, and then three thick fingers fell on each shoulder, trapping him in an iron grip.

It was not until his feet were lifted clean off the floor that he was able to scream, kicking hard as Jiraiya dragged him out of the room. Posters on the wall flickered, going from newspaper articles, to dripping blood words of, "GOT YOU GOT YOU." Their eyes were all around him, bright yellow and staring at him as he struggled, trying desperately to free himself from the frog's hold on him. He might as well have been fighting against a vice; he had no idea something like this could be so damn _strong._

"No! Stop!" he bellowed as he was dragged out onto the play area floor. He could barely see immediately in front of him, and only Teddie's eyes from the stage provided any kind of illumination in the room. It was enough that he could vaguely make out something tall and dark standing in the middle of the floor, but he could not say for sure what it was… just that he was being dragged toward it and he could not stop them.

He screamed, clawing at the thick fingers that clung to him as he kicked out, trying to knock the thing over, but he may as well have been kicking at a cement wall. He was being shoved toward it, into it, and as he struggled, his foot kicked against a metal endoskeleton, sending a resounding _clang_ through the room.

He was going to die.

_He was going to die._

"I'll find the bastard!"

Everything stopped dead, and the only sound that could be heard was Adachi's frantic breathing. It took him a moment to realize he was the one that screamed out that declaration, and a moment more for him to figure out why. The kids in his dreams… they were murdered and stuffed into these same animatronics. They never caught the person that did it – maybe they were doing this because they could not rest until the person that killed them was brought to justice or something like that. It was ridiculous, it all sounded ridiculous, but he was currently being held tight by a _fucking frog animatronic;_ ridiculous was pretty much defining his life right now.

"T-they never caught the guy, right?" he asked, his voice trembling violently with each word. "I-I'm a detective; I was the best on the force. I can find the bastard and bring him here!"

That silence continued to hang in the air… until Adachi was pulled away from the thing with a loud metal creak. He was dropped to his feet in the next moment, and his knees could barely support him, let alone help him turn around to stare up at the frog. He could barely see it in the darkness, but he could tell it was lifting a hand, holding up two fingers.

"T-two days… g-got it…"

The animatronic stared him down for what felt like an eternity, before it finally turned around, making its way back to the Frog's Pond. Adachi glanced to the side, seeing Take and Sakuya staring at him, and he could almost picture their stares judging his chances, before they finally moved, returning to the stage. He could only watch as they clamored back up, assuming their usual spots before their eyes shut off. Teddie continued to stare him down for a long moment, before it too shut its eye lights off.

Somehow, Adachi's legs stumbled him back to the guard office, though he could barely remember the trip back. The only thing he could really recall was the poster just outside of the office had changed, and the dripping blood let him know that they were watching him before the poster fizzled back into place like a bad TV reception. He did not even have the energy to whimper at that, fumbling into the office and curling up under the desk, burying his face in his knees.

~.oOOo.~ 

As soon as the old man arrived that morning, Adachi shot out of the office like his rear end was on fire, not willing to spend another moment in this fucked up store. He could get his paycheck today, and then he could tell King Moron to go get stuffed. Like hell he was going to spend two days trying to find a guy that probably was nowhere near Inaba anymore; he would deal with the nightmares every night as long as it meant never having to be anywhere near that office for the rest of his life.

He barely remembered to clock out, pacing back and forth outside of the HR office to wait for the woman that would hand out the checks. It was hours before she finally showed up, looking annoyed at his impatience, and taking her sweet time in getting his paycheck. He practically ripped it out of her hands, shaking as he tore it open and…

…it was only written out for twelve thousand yen.

Adachi could not even describe the emotion that went through him. All he could feel was his heart ceasing to exist and his gut feeling completely empty inside. He did not even realize he uttered out a, "What?" until the woman looked up at him. She glanced down at his check, before making a non-committal noise.

"Expected more?" she asked. "There was a printing error in our advertisement. Didn't Mooroka-san tell you?"

Adachi could only shake his head, and she let out a noise that made it obvious he was dismissed. He was about to shuffle out, still unable to feel anything, when she spoke up again.

"We still haven't been able to hire a weekend guard," she said. "We'll need you to work overtime tonight and tomorrow."

Adachi paused, feeling like lightning struck him dead then. All he could do was mutter a faint noise of acknowledgement, before he shuffled out of the office and the building. He did not know where he was going, and was only barely conscious of people and buildings passing him by as his feet took him farther and farther away from Junes. His fists were clenched tight, crushing the insult to the danger he had just put himself in for the past five nights until it was crumpled into a near indiscernible ball.

He stopped finally after the long walk, and he looked up blearily, recognizing his partner's house. It seemed his unconsciousness knew what he needed, and he raised his fist to knock. Dojima answered after barely a minute, and he stared at Adachi in mute surprise.

"Adachi?" he asked, opening the door wide. "What the hell happened; you look like death warmed over."

Adachi did not have the voice to answer, shuffling into the house and barely having a mind to kick his shoes off. Dojima stared after him, finally going over and guiding his old partner over to the couch, standing nearby once he got him to sit and still expecting some kind of answer. Adachi opened his mouth, and it took a moment for him to remember how words were supposed to work.

"…I need a beer," he managed. Dojima opened his mouth, looking like he was going to object, but he clicked it shut instead. He stared down at him for a moment, before going to get the beer, and he had to take Adachi's wrist to tap the can against his clenched fist once he had it. Somehow he managed to get his fingers to cooperate, cracking the can open.

Dojima stood nearby as Adachi chugged the cheap beer down, the air dead silent between them. After a moment, the older man let out a sigh, grabbing a blanket from the back of the couch and draping it over his shoulders.

"Try and sleep. You can tell me when you wake up," he said. "I'll be right back."

Dojima turned then, missing it as Adachi shook. Sleep? How the hell could he sleep? He had just put himself through nightmare after nightmare, barely survived night after night and was _literally_ being shoved into death's door last night, and all for a damn lie.

He sat there in his numb shock for what felt like hours, before he was finally conscious of his movements again. Somehow he managed to set the empty beer can down, shaking the whole way, before he finally broke down in sobs. His hands planted themselves over his eyes as he shook, feeling like he was going to throw up, like he was going to come apart at the seams and never be able to get back together again.

Another hour felt like it passed by, and he finally looked up, noticing that Dojima had been gone the entire time. He barely remembered him going upstairs… but what was he doing that he was gone so long? Curious, he managed to pull himself up from the couch, his body protesting against the movement the whole time, and start up the stairs.

He could barely hear Dojima in a room down the hallway and came to a stop, peering in through a door that was halfway open at the end. What he saw sent chills down his spine; the room beyond was decorated like a little girl's nursery, with bright pinks and yellows and little balloons and unicorns painted on the walls. Instead of a traditional futon, there was a medical bed in the middle of the room, with a monitor hooked up to it that did not seem to be monitoring anything at first glance. Considering what was _on_ the bed, it seemed pretty easy to conclude that the machine would go off if pressure was removed from said medical bed.

Dojima was sitting with his back to Adachi, holding the hand of the person on the bed. She was small and fragile looking, and her forehead was caved in, like a part of her brain was missing entirely. The little girl was clearly conscious, as she could blink and move her eyes around, but little involuntary movements like that were about all she could do. Her mouth hung slack, and Dojima had to reach over and dab drool away from her mouth between the spoonfuls of mushed food he was trying to force her to swallow.

_They used to be left in free roam during the day too, but ever since that biting incident… Hah… w-who knew the human body could live without the frontal lobe, right?_

Adachi felt the world grow cold around him; the biting incident, the animatronic in the storage room with the broken jaw that still had faint traces of blood…

_Dear god…_

"Why did you do it?" he asked, and Dojima did not even have the grace to jump in surprise at his unannounced entrance. "Why did you suggest I work there when you…?"

At first, Dojima did not move, and it was a moment before he finally let out a tired sounding sigh, turning away from his daughter and looking up at Adachi with heartbroken, defeated eyes.

"…because after seeing that article, I honestly hoped they had cleaned up their act over there by now."


	7. Night Six

What followed that afternoon made Adachi feel like he was back on the force, and while he hated to grill his former partner like he was, he needed to get all the information that he could.

They settled in the living room after Dojima had brewed what had to be the strongest pot of coffee he ever had, and Adachi still took it straight up black. He needed all the energy he could to at least pretend he was awake and alert, despite the many attempts his former partner was making to try and get him to sleep. This was just like working a major case, only this was a cold case, his life depended on solving it, and he had only a day and a half now to do it.

Dojima was the best start Adachi could hope for; his partner had a whole scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings, some of them the same as the ones he had seen on the walls of the play area. Now that he could actually read them, they painted as grim of a tale as one could imagine: ten years ago, four kids went missing in Junes in the middle of the day. Since operating hours were spent looking for the kids and not finding them, the store was locked down earlier than usual, and the search was taken to the surrounding area. Dojima, despite his nephew visiting from the city being one of the missing kids, had taken point on the case, and had still be working on it right up until his daughter, Nanako's, injury.

In the years that followed, a string of mysterious disappearances occurred at the store, mostly consisting of night time janitorial staff. The bodies could never be found, and Junes was called under fire for the lack of night time security to protect their workers. That was when the night guard shift was created, and the disappearances slowly started to trickle down, but they did not completely disappear until about three years ago, when Saki started working there.

"Heard she went to college," Dojima said after that explanation, only to have a curious look appear on his face when Adachi shuddered and shook his head.

The biting incident was difficult to ask about, and a pained look appeared on Dojima's face when he did. For a moment it seemed like he was going to ask him to not talk about it, but he knew better. Instead, he took a moment to gather himself, before explaining:

"Nanako was four, and she really loved Junes. Every time Chisato and I took her there, she would sing that jingle the entire time."

He paused, leaning back in his seat. "We did not take her to the play area that often – not many people did go there after the incident; kept complaining the animatronics smelled like living corpses. But when we did take her there, she always liked hanging around the warrior guy." He let out a hollow sounding laugh. "She used to say he felt like a 'gentle soul'."

Adachi tried not to shudder at that.

"One time Chisato needed to get some personal things, and I took Nanako to the play area to kill some time," Dojima continued. "I… wasn't watching. Nanako was playing around that animatronic, and…"

He paused again, looking like he had a thick lump stuck in his mouth. "…we had to unscrew the thing's jaw and rip it out of the connections before we could finally get her free. There was so much blood… and…"

Once again, Dojima had to stop, shaking his head and trying not to get overly emotional. "I tried to keep working after that, but then Chisato died in that hit and run at Samegawa, and… I couldn't anymore."

Dojima finally fell quiet, and Adachi had to set the pencil he was using to write down, staring at him. So that was why his partner retired early… he had no idea how to even respond to that. He did not even know what he would do in that situation, and he stared down at his notes, biting his lip. More than just those dead kids were tied to that store, and him having five really bad nights seemed pretty damn insignificant in comparison.

Finally, he flipped his writing pad closed, standing up and tucking it into his back pocket.

"Thanks, Dojima-san," he said softly. "This is the best start I could hope for."

Dojima glanced up at him, letting out a curious noise as Adachi moved to leave. "Shouldn’t you at least try to sleep?"

Adachi paused at the door, his body letting out an exhausted tremble at the suggestion, but he shook it off. He did not have _time_ for sleep, nor was he in the mood to even try – god only knew what kind of nightmares he would have after last night.

"Nah, I'll manage," he replied, fake cheerfulness forcing its way into his voice. "Wouldn't be the first time."

~.oOOo.~ 

Adachi had one more person he needed to grill for information, but finding her was going to be the issue. He had no idea where the heck Shirogane would be lurking, but he was fairly sure she would not be lurking outside of Junes after he shot her down the other day. In fact, he was fairly certain that if he did find her, her first response would be to tell him to go get stuffed. As likely as that was to happen, there was no way he could let it, and he knew Shirogane would be able to help him with that.

It felt like ages before he spotted the distinctive, obviously dyed blue hair, standing outside of the Aiya restaurant and debating going in. Now that he thought about it, for someone that carried herself in such a professional manner, dying her hair such a color was like an obvious teenage rebellion kind of thing. He could not help but smirk at that, before he finally approached.

"Yo, Shirogane."

She jumped, turning to stare at him in wide eyed surprise. Her gaze flicked down to her watch a moment later, before her demeanor immediately went cold.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?" she asked.

"Nah, I don't got time for that," Adachi replied, his tone easy going as he stood before her. "We need to talk."

Again, surprise flicked briefly across her face. "Oh? I thought you didn't care?"

"Yeah, well… now it's personal."

For a moment, it looked like she was going to let him have it, and by all means he deserved it. Instead, she let out a frustrated noise, finally waving him into the restaurant before entering herself. The warmth of the Chinese food shop flooded over Adachi as soon as he entered, reminding him yet again how tired he was, but he shook it off. He just did not have the time for sleeping right now; he had to focus!

Once they were seated and ordered, Adachi pulled out the notepad with all the information he had gotten down earlier.

"So that's everything I've gotten from Dojima-san," he began. "I need whatever information you can give me that he didn't already cover."

Shirogane glanced at him, before pulling open the notepad and pouring over it. Silence settled between them, interrupted only when their food arrived, and it was a long time before she finally set the notepad down.

"Dojima-san was right in the middle of this case," she said softly. "He is the best source of information on it."

Adachi could feel his noodles hit the bottom of his stomach hard. He was hoping he would be able to get more information out of her… he should have known better, really.

"About the children… I can say they were children of individuals that were well known," she continued, handing his notepad back. "Tatsumi Kanji was the son of the local textile shop owners, while Amagi Yukiko was the daughter of the family that owns the Amagi Inn."

Local kids… but they were not all local, were they? "What about the other two?" he asked. "I know one of them was Dojima's nephew, but the other kid?"

"Hanamura Yosuke," Naoto replied. "His father was manager of Junes at the time, and they moved here at the time of the store's opening. He supposedly spent much of his time in the play area when he wasn't at school."

Adachi sat back, staring at his notes, but not really seeing them. He was going over the dreams he had in his mind, pulling together some clues. The last one… that had to be the Hanamura kid; that would be why he was screaming for his dad as he pounded on the manager's office door. The quiet one that fought back… probably Dojima's nephew, if he was anything like his uncle. So that meant he dreamed first about the Tatsumi kid, and then the little girl, and he wracked his brain trying to come up with some clues and wishing at least one of them had gotten a good look.

If only he was that lucky.

"So, likely suspects…" he mumbled, flipping through his notes. "Had to be someone that knew the store well if he kept those kids hidden away until it was closed."

"An employee is a likely suspect," Naoto conceded, "but most of the employees from that time are also on my missing person's list."

Adachi nodded; so they needed to get a list of employees from ten years back. He had no idea how the hell he was supposed to do that, but he would figure something out. In the meantime, he had the scrapbook and notes from Dojima, but he did not have the original case file…

"I need any kind of information you've got, especially if you have copies of the case file," he said. "I'll look it over at work tonight; see if I can comb out anything that someone else might have missed."

She gave him a perplexed expression, eyeing the drawn look to his face and the fact that he was going to slump over asleep any second.

"You're going to work…?" she asked. "Shouldn't you at least sleep first?"

Adachi let out a grunt, shaking his head. "I don't have time for that."

~.oOOo.~

One thing he could say about Shirogane, she sure as hell kept thorough notes on the case. Adachi had to dig out one of his old school bags from his closet to carry all the paperwork she had dropped off on him, and he looked absolutely ridiculous lugging the damn thing into work that evening. Fortunately, no one cared enough to pay much attention to it as he clocked in and started for his little office.

He just hoped that they would go easy on him tonight and let him look over everything.

Namatame was in his usual spot, and he looked over at him in wide-eyed surprise when he saw him walking away from the time clock. He waved to him absently as Adachi came over, looking like he was having trouble remembering how words worked for a moment.

"I thought you said you were going to quit?" he asked.

"Yeah, well… I've got some motivation now," Adachi replied vaguely, and it only brought an even more confused look to the other man's face. He smirked grimly, but he did not elaborate further, instead enjoying some idle – if slightly unnerved – banter back and forth, before starting off for his office.

Adachi let his bag thump against the desk, privately relieved when he did not see any new training tapes from people that were not alive anymore. He propped the security tablet up so he could poke at it if he needed to check the cameras, before pulling out the first file and settling in for a long night.

He was about half way through that folder, poking at the tablet periodically, when he realized it had to at _least_ been a half hour since the start of his shift, and the animatronics had not budged an inch. Even the Frog's Pond was quiet, the curtain undisturbed, and he was wondering if they were keeping themselves off so he could have his two days. If that were the case, then why were Teddie's eyes still glowing on the stage…?

Curious in spite of himself, he glanced over to his left window, and… he swore he saw something there, just out of the light of the office. A moment more of staring, and a familiar metal creak came through the window. He could just make out Jiraiya's head turn toward him until the front of the bulbous eye stalks were visible, the red paint gleaming slightly. Adachi swallowed loudly, remembering that Saki did say in her training tapes that if Jiraiya hung out by the window at night, then he would be protected from the others.

Somehow, that still was not very comforting.

After a moment, Adachi shook his head, closing down the tablet to save some power – no point in leaving it up if they were not going to be coming after him. Instead he stuck his nose to the paperwork, pouring over what he had before him. Hours ticked by slowly as folder after folder passed by, but nothing distinctive stood out. It was just the same material over and over again, saying the same things he already knew. The only thing that really made him pause was the list of missing persons that was associated with the store: it was a whole folder in and of itself, and thicker than he felt comfortable with. Still, that did not help him much, and he finally dropped the thing, letting his fists thump against the desk.

He almost screamed in frustration, but the sound of something metal hitting the floor drew his attention. A curious noise escaped from him instead, and he ducked down to the ground, feeling around for whatever metal thing fell, until his fingers closed around a key. He brought it out, staring down at it in surprise, before feeling around for anything else, something that might have given him a clue as to what it was. His fingers brushed against a paper taped to the bottom of the desk. The tape holding it there was so old it easily peeled off, revealing neat handwriting.

> _Play area staff,_
> 
> _If Yosuke ever gets out of hand, use this key to lock him into my office for an hour._
> 
> _Keep track of how many times you have to do this for his punishment later._
> 
> _Hanamura_

Adachi stared back and forth between the note and the key; was… this supposed to be the key for the manager's office? It could not still work, they had to have changed the locks by now, if only because Mooroka was that much of an asshole.

But if there was a chance…

His stomach twisted itself into knots; he knew he had to try, but there was no way he could do it during the day time hours. He would not be able to get away with it while all the rest of the staff was there. So that meant he had to do it tonight… out there, with the animatronics. He wanted to cry in fear, but he did not have any other choice.

Clutching the key, he looked up to the ceiling as if begging for someone divine to protect him, before he stepped out of the office. Jiraiya turned at the sound of his footsteps, staring down at him and the key in his hand.

"Hey. I need to get to the manager's office," Adachi said, his voice sounding a lot braver than he felt.

Jiraiya stood unmoving for what felt like an eternity, before he finally started forward, making Adachi back out until they came to the shipping area. He stood aside and let the animatronic take the lead, leaving the play area behind and heading into the store proper. He glanced around as he followed the robot, only able to see it because of the white suit it was dressed up in. It was the same path the Hanamura kid had taken before he ultimately met his demise, and the realization sent a shudder of fear down his spine.

They reached the managerial offices, and he had to pause a moment to let his eyes adjust to the moonlight coming from the skylight above. Jiraiya continued, coming to stand just outside the office door. Adachi took a deep breath, shooting forward before he lost his nerve. Someone really must have been looking after him, because the key slid easily into the lock and turned.

_"Thank you,"_ he whispered to no one in particular, shoving the door open.

It was completely dark in the office, and the reserve power was not hooked up to the area. Adachi fumbled in his pocket, pulling out his cell phone and letting the light from the screen illuminate it as best as the small screen could. He shot for the filing cabinets immediately, and he heard a metal creak as Jiraiya peered into the office after him, watching him as he flipped through folder after folder, frowning at some of the bizarre labels.

He finally pulled one of the folders out and flipped it open. The contents were bills of some kind, but he did not recognize the company name, and the itemization did not make much sense. Most of them just had "one husk" listed, though others had more mundane items, like "cleaning" and "repair". The last one he came to had such a listing: "one husk", "deep clean", and "mechanical repair", with an estimated delivery date listed at the bottom as well. At first he just dismissed it, but then he did a double take at the date.

It was just two days ago.

Two days ago was when the Tsunade animatronic had been delivered.

Adachi felt his stomach churn, and he had to smack a hand over his mouth to keep himself from being sick. Was that bastard Mooroka _actually keeping track_ of the dead bodies they had to pull out of animatronic suits?! Was all of this ten years worth of covering up for the animatronics killing workers and dumb teens that were stupid enough to break into this place?!

"Dammit…" he muttered, grabbing that folder and tucking it under his arm, slamming the drawer closed.

He tackled the other drawers, pulling out file after file. He kept another folder of body disposal receipts, what he assumed was the first folder full, just to have a frame of reference. Even if he never found the killer, if he left these with Shirogane, she would be able to at least get Mooroka arrested.

There were hundreds of other folders, and while he could find procedures on how to handle the animatronics, he could not find any employee records – that sounded like something that would be in the HR office. Adachi frowned, glaring at Mooroka's desk, before he tackled that, digging through the drawers until he finally got his hands on a master set of keys. He shot past Jiraiya, totally ignoring how perplexed the animatronic seemed as he bolted for the HR office. That door was open in a shot, and he was pouring through the drawers there, going through year after year after year of hard copies of employee files, and finally locating the one he needed.

Adachi paused once he had it in hands, feeling almost giddy with excitement. With this, he had a chance; if he could find any kind of suspect from these files, it had to be in here.

He spent the next hour cleaning up the HR and manager offices, making sure it looked like no one had been messing around in them. He had just dropped the master keys back into Mooroka's desk, before he caught a faint glint out of the corner of his eye. His head snapped up, holding his cell phone up to see a picture framed on the wall, and closer inspection showed it was four kids and the four animatronics. The tallest kid was hugging the bunny, while a little girl in a kimono was looking adorable in front of the phoenix. A little grey haired kid was looking shyly at the camera in front of the warrior guy, while the last kid was throwing his arms up in the air in front of the frog, an excited grin on his face.

Adachi smiled faintly; they were cute. He was about to turn around and head out, when realization hit him, and he turned around to the framed picture again.

_These were_ the _kids…!_

He stared for a moment longer, at a loss for words, before he finally turned away from it, feeling numb all over. Jiraiya was following just behind him, and Adachi ignored the guard office in favor of going straight into the play area. Teddie's eyes trained on him, but he ignored him, keeping his cell phone light on. He came to the place he had been dragged to last night, and he could finally see the thing Jiraiya was trying to stuff him into. With the light playing over it, he could see that it was another version of the warrior guy, only its coat was black and dark red.

Adachi turned to Jiraiya, pointing to the Izanagi look-a-like.

"Were you going to stuff me in here?" he asked. "You dick."

There was a crackle as Take's speaker activated, and he let out a laugh that might have sounded cute and friendly in the daylight, but it sounded really creepy in the dark. He shrugged it off, instead approaching the stage and looking up at the animatronics. After a moment, he held a finger up, pointing to Take.

"…Tatsumi-kun," he said, and Take turned rather suddenly, enough to make Adachi jump. "Whoa, easy there, muscles."

He stepped away from him, looking up to Sakuya. "So you're Yukiko-chan."

She raised a wing, like a graceful lady raising the sleeve of her kimono. Adachi nodded absently, turning toward Jiraiya. He had been suspecting who he was for awhile, but the photo in the manager's office confirmed it.

"Hana-chan," he said softly, before his eyes flicked over to the general direction of the Frog's Pond. Of course, there was one other animatronic in this place that never moved around. "Didn't work out the way you planed it, hunh?"

Jiraiya turned toward the Pond, almost like it was ashamed, but Adachi was not paying attention to him anymore. His gaze turned to where the supply closet was; Teddie was weird, but he was not the one that was possessed like the others. He walked over to the door and placed his hand on the knob, taking a deep breath, finally throwing it open.

"…Narukami-kun."

The real Izanagi animatronic, despite not being connected to anything, lifted its head toward him. The eyes had been removed from it, and just little LED pinpoints of light stared back up at Adachi.

He had to step back a moment, sinking down to his knees as emotion overwhelmed him. A shuddering breath escaped from him, and he shook, trying not to be sick. These kids had suffered a terrible death, something no one deserved, not to mention little kids. Who even knew where their bodies were, not to mention all the other people that had died over the past ten years. Hell, for all he knew, all those bodies were incinerated, never to be seen again.

Adachi let out a breath, reaching up to rub at his eyes, before he finally stood up. He glanced between the Izanagi in the closet and the one out on the floor… and then he went right into the supply closet. His light splashed over the shelves, pulling together screwdrivers and wrenches, before placing his hands on Izanagi's shoulders and wheeling him out onto the floor.

Truth be told, he already knew that if anyone asked him why he did this later in his life, he would not have been able to answer them. He took a deep breath first, praying that he would not get bit, before completely disconnecting the old jaw – it was all rusted, like someone had not bothered to clean it up that much before stuffing the animatronic in the supply closet. He went to the other Izanagi, going to do the same to its jaw. He went back and forth several times, pulling mechanical parts from one and installing them on the other, making sure they were working before taking parts of the costume that matched the old unit and replacing those as well.

With the torso looking almost like new, Adachi went back for the legs and arms. He set the arms aside and locked the wheels on the legs, before going to haul the torso up. He ran into problems almost immediately, because he could not hold onto the torso and see where he was going at the same time.

"Stupid power…!" he grunted, and he could hear Izanagi's jaw moving up and down, like he was silently laughing at him.

Adachi felt something brush his shoulder, and he paused to see Jiraiya just behind him. The animatronic held a hand out, and for a moment he stared at it, before he awkwardly handed over his cell. With the light held up, it helped him see just enough that he could hook Izanagi's torso and legs together. The arms were next, and Adachi finished up by snapping together the parts of his costume that hid his joints.

He sat back once he finished, smiling tiredly as Izanagi moved on its own, testing out his movements again for the first time in over three years. Finally, he took his cell back from Jiraiya and wheeled the remains of the other Izanagi into the storage closet. By the time he came out, the animatronics had shut themselves off for the night, but not before Izanagi had taken up space by the Frog's Pond. Jiraiya was not hiding behind his curtain, instead opting to stay out where he could see his friend.

That tired smile came back to Adachi's face, before he took up the files he stole and headed back to the guard office.


	8. Night Seven

He screwed up.

He did not know how the heck he was supposed to have found a suspect from a ten year old cold case in two days, so he really should not have surprised when he could not. His only hope now was that leaving the files with her would make sure that at least someone was punished for the crap over the last ten years, and hopefully no one else would have the misfortune of working this job. Too much to hope for? Maybe, but it was out of his hands now.

He did not even bother hiding in the guard office, instead sitting on one of the chairs in the party area, his elbows resting against the table and just waiting. He felt, more than heard, the frog step up behind him, and he let out a tired sounding sigh, leaning back.

"…I did the best I could," he murmured faintly. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more. Maybe someone outside of this place will be able to find the guy now."

He rested his thick fingers on his shoulder, and another tired noise escaped from him. Those hands moved then, resting on either side of his head, and he closed his eyes before…

~.oOOo.~ 

_"Adachi-san!"_

Adachi jerked awake, exhausted eyes wide as he stared around. Instead of the party area, he was sitting outside at the beef skewer place, a plate of beef next to him and the wide open folder he had fallen asleep on in front of him. He blinked up blearily at Shirogane, and the concerned look that was on her face; oops, looked like he had scared her just as much as his dream scared him. It was a moment before his heart finally calmed down enough for him to lean back, forcing a nonchalant smile on his face in an effort to get her to calm down too.

"Ah… heh; sorry, did I fall asleep on you?" he asked.

"For about an hour," Shirogane replied. "You looked like you needed it, so I didn't want to wake you, but then you started making weird noises…"

Adachi rubbed at the back of his neck, half expecting to feel it broken. "Probably good that you did; wasn't exactly having the best dream."

Shirogane did not look so certain about that, but Adachi was stuffing another steak skewer in his mouth and hitting the folder he fell asleep on, trying to remember what he was doing. They had been going at it since he had gotten out of work. The files were a wealth of information, at least in respect to how many people died in the store, if the "one husk" on the receipts meant one body each. If that was the case, then just the two folders Adachi had managed to steal made the actual missing person's list a lot longer than the list Naoto had.

After a few hours, Adachi leaned back again, rubbing at his eyes. Other then the store being a lot more horrifying than he initially believed, there was nothing pointing to an employee being responsible for the initial murders. It only made the sinking feeling of doom in his stomach increase – he was going to die tonight, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Do me a favor," he said as he stood up. "Get this information out to as many people as you can. Probably spreading it out on the Internet is best; people there will probably gobble it up like candy. This way if we can't find the murderer, we can at least stop Mooroka's shit."

Shirogane blinked up at him in surprise, not really sure how to respond to that. "What are you going to do?"

Adachi pursed his lips into a thin line, trying not to show how unnerved and worried he was. "I want to visit Dojima-san before I go to work tonight."

She looked like she was going to protest, to say he sounded more like a dead man walking than someone going to work one last night at their job. It did not take her long to realize that was exactly the point, and she clamped her mouth shut instead, looking like she desperately wanted to tell him not to go, but knew better than to try.

Adachi was grateful that Naoto did not say anything, and grateful again when Dojima had the same reaction. He really looked like he was going to try and knock him out at first, to keep him from going off one last time to the family store that was the host of innumerable murders, but instead he handed him a beer and they sat on the couch. They talked together for hours, about the good times before Nanako was injured, about working together on the force, and how Adachi used to be such a terrible rookie. He did not mind those laughs at his expense; it felt weirdly good to know how far he had come in his life, that despite not getting what he wanted, he ended up with everything he needed anyway.

Pity he learned that too late.

It felt too soon before he was waving goodbye to his old partner, and he knew Dojima's eyes were on him as he headed down the street, walking the death march to Junes. Once he got there, it was the same as always, with people avoiding him, like they were afraid they would catch death from him if they were anywhere near him. He almost wished it worked that way, if only they could understand the suffering every single night guard had gone through since the position was started.

He clocked in as usual, and Namatame was there at the docks, the only person he had been able to commiserate with this past week. He gave a half hearted wave as he started over to him, and the older man stopped what he was doing, propping himself against his pallet jack as Adachi approached.

"They're really working you to the bone," Namatame commented, eyes widening slightly as he saw how tired he was. "Shouldn't you ask them for at least one day off?"

Adachi laughed bitterly, shaking his head. Oh, he was going to have a few days off now… more like the rest of eternity.

"Nah, it's fine," he mumbled. "I worked longer hours at my last job."

Namatame did not seem the least bit convinced, if the fact that the sympathetic look did not leave his face was any indication. Finally, he just shook his head, standing upright again and starting to angle his jack toward the remaining pallet.

"Well, take care of yourself, you know?" he said. "Not giving yourself the time you need to try and sort yourself out… it'll drive you crazy after awhile."

Adachi snorted out a laugh at that. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

Namatame did not comment, and Adachi did not think anything of it as he started for the guard office, missing it when the older man's hands started shaking as he gripped the pallet jack…

…but he _did not_ miss it when Namatame started whistling.

Adachi came to an abrupt halt, eyes widening as the tune flooded into his ears. Any other tune he would not have cared; _anything_ else Namatame did, he would have never looked back to spare him a second thought. But it was that _damn song,_ the same damn song that had taken over his dreams and haunted his waking hours… it made him stop so fast that he was certain he left skid marks on the floor, and he slowly turned around to face the older man's back.

"…that's a nice song there," he commented, his tone carefully neutral, even as his hands balled up into fists at his sides. Namatame did not look back as he muttered a faint, "thanks," focusing on getting the forks of the jack into the pallet. It gave Adachi the opportunity to come up behind him, his footsteps as silent as they could be on the concrete floor.

"Sounds like the kind of tune you'd sing to a kid to calm them down."

There was always that moment when a suspect knew he was busted. It played out the same way every time before an arrest was made, and Namatame did not disappoint. He froze for a moment, before he suddenly sprang into action, trying to make a mad dash for his truck. Adachi was ready for him to do just that, and he was reaching out for him before he even moved, grabbing his shoulder to spin him around and throw him off balance. His fist was impacting against the older man's face as hard as he could in the next moment, and Namatame was going down like a sack of bricks the next.

He had to give Namatame credit: despite the blow to his face, he was still trying to crawl away from him, but Adachi was not going to have any of that. He stood with his legs on either side of him, grabbing the asshole by his collar and hauling him up so he was eye level with him.

"You damn _bastard!"_ he snapped, punching him in the face and letting him fall again. "You kept coming back here this whole time?! Ten years, and you still kept coming back here!?"

Namatame was still trying to crawl away, and Adachi stooped over, delivering one last punch that had him out for good. It was tempting to keep wailing on him, to give him the beating he sure as shit deserved, but it was not his responsibility to kill the bastard. Adachi glanced up to see if anyone else had been around to witness that, but there was no one; it was too close to midnight for anyone to be loitering around this area of the store.

Adachi paused to shake his fist out, before grabbing Namatame by the collar of his shirt and dragging him to the guard office. Once inside, he stuffed his unconscious body under the desk, flopping into the chair with his feet propped up on Namatame's back.

And he waited.

Midnight clicked by, and it took a few minutes before Adachi heard the familiar metal on metal creak of the animatronics moving. He did not bother to turn on the tablet or close the doors; he was expecting them this time. They were being almost shy, like they just _knew_ another person was there with Adachi, but they were too afraid to hope that he had actually kept his promise to bring them the murderer. It was a few minutes before they appeared in his doorways, Take and Jiraiya on one side, and Izanagi and Sakuya on the other. Adachi gave them a faint, lopsided smile, actually glad to see them for the first time since he took the job.

In a stroke of perfect timing, Namatame chose that moment to stir back into consciousness. Adachi let out a faint noise, scooting back in his chair, and giving the older man a moment to realize where he was. It did not take him long, and once he saw the animatronics in the doorways he screamed, forcing himself further under the desk. Adachi was not going to let him get away with that, however, and he shoved the chair out of the way, giving himself enough room to grab Namatame by his shirt and drag him out into the open.

"What's the matter?" he asked, turning the older man around so he could get a good look at the animatronics. "I always thought murderers liked to admire their handiwork?"

Namatame was trembling like a leaf in his arms, looking frightfully back and forth between the two doors, and the three sets of glowing yellow eyes focused entirely on him.

"N-no… no please!" he whimpered. "You don't understand! It was a bad time… m-my wife found out I was having an affair, and we separated, but instead of being able to stay with the woman I loved, she left me too. I was all alone… the affair had gone public and I lost my job as an official… I-I had nothing, and I snapped! I didn't mean to kill them, I swear!"

Adachi's lip twitched in disgust; that had to be the _lamest_ excuse for murder he ever heard.

"What kind of bullshit are you trying to feed me?" he asked. "You stalked after and murdered those kids before stuffing them into these things. What you did was deliberate and planned out, and not some bullshit spur of the moment thing. Not only that, but you didn't just kill them, you know? You're responsible for every damn murder that's happened in this place since then, and _trust me,_ I've only scratched the surface of how many night guards and random stupid kids didn't survive. You seriously don't think anyone sane would just up and forgive you, do you?!"

Namatame let out a trembling noise, too scared to say anything other than please, please over and over again. Finally, Adachi just let out a sigh, letting go of him and shoving him forward as he took a step back. For a moment, Namatame was confused, and he looked back at him, the hope that Adachi was just going to let him go free shining in his eyes…

…but like hell that was going to happen.

Adachi just shrugged casually, shaking his head. "I'm just not that merciful."

The animatronics were swarming the office in the next moment, and Namatame screamed bloody murder as they locked their iron grips on him. Adachi had to take another step back as feathers and fur flew everywhere in their effort to restrain the flailing monster as they dragged him out of the office. The screams continued down the left hallway, but Adachi was not paying them much mind anymore; he grabbed the desk chair – it had been knocked down during the scuffle – and dragged it back to the desk, flopping back down and propping his feet up. He was pulling his cell phone out as he heard the begging coming from the stage area, setting his alarm clock function for five-thirty.

By the time he set the phone on the desk, the screams had suddenly stopped, and Adachi did not need to look at the tablet to know that everyone was in their proper place, and Teddie's creepy eyes were turned off. He let out a faint sigh, folding his hands over his stomach as he leaned back and closed his eyes, certain that he would finally be able to get a decent amount of sleep for the first time in a week.

~.oOOo.~ 

_"You're fired!"_

Most people would be unnerved by the sight of a bucktoothed moron shouted so loud and so hard they were spraying spittle through the gaps of their teeth, but Adachi just had a pleased smile on his face. He was not exactly surprised that it came to this; as soon as the HR woman handed him his insulting one thousand yen overtime check and said that King Moron wanted to speak with him, he had a feeling this was going to be the reason.

He could not even find it in him to be mad.

"Really?" he asked, his tone almost teasing as Mooroka did a pretty good impression of a tomato. "And the reason is…?"

"You need me to spell it out for you!?" King Moron snapped, before holding up a finger for each item he was ticking off. "Tampering with the animatronics, being completely unprofessional, and you _stink_ from all the pants pissing you've been doing!"

They really were not going to let that go, hunh? Adachi did not really care, he just shook his head, letting out a faint chuckle. The reaction actually had Mooroka backing off, giving him a suspicious look.

"That's… not it, is it?" he asked, that smile never leaving his face. "You know I broke into your office, don't you? But you can't say that much without revealing what I took, so you're coming up with this bullshit instead."

He shrugged after a moment, taking off his badge and tossing it onto Mooroka's desk. Adachi really could not bring himself to care; his job here was done anyway. He survived as a night guard at Junes without quitting, and he finally brought peace to those little kids. What more could he ask for after all that he had been through?

"That's okay," he continued, "by now that information has… probably spread to every nook and cranny of that internet you seem to hate so much."

Mooroka's eyes went comically wide, and Adachi just smiled.

"By the way? It's called Facebook, and I checked on my phone before you called me in here; looks like you're trending right now."

Mooroka was diving for his computer as Adachi turned to leave, pulling off the annoying guard uniform shirt and just walking around in his undershirt. Instead of leaving the store like he probably should have, he went right for the play area. It was stupid, but this was probably the last time he was going to see them… so he may as well say goodbye while he could? If things worked like they did in stories, then those kids' souls probably left; went on to a better place and all that. Still, he hoped they would get the message.

He saw Jiraiya at the Frog's Pond first, standing out and singing next to Tsunade. Izanagi was nearby as he had been after Adachi fixed him, not singing, but more like he was standing guard next to his best friend. He smiled faintly at the sight, letting out a soft sigh.

"…see you guys," he said faintly, and he swore that Izanagi turned toward him on purpose, one of his eyes winking out before flicking back on.

Adachi snorted at that, turning toward the stage and… just _smiling._ Oh, he knew the procedure when it came to handling the animatronics; it was well documented in one of the folders he grabbed. It clearly stated that employees did not need to check Teddie every morning before the play area was ready to be open, as it did not move from the stage at night like the others. Just because it did not move…

He turned then, stuffing his hands in his pockets. A woman and a little girl passed by him, and he could hear the girl stop, tugging at her mother's arm.

"Mommy, look! Teddie has pretty new eyes!"

~.oOOo.~

It did not take long for the police to show up at Junes once the screaming stopped, and the customers that had been in the store were all shuffled outside. Yet more people were drawn to the store and the flashing lights, watching in awe as employees were escorted out, either in handcuffs and shoved into a car, or taken aside for questioning, before leaving without their work aprons. King Moron was near one of the last to be taken out, and he had to force his face out of sight as the crowd started shouting and jeering before he was shoved into a car.

Adachi watched the whole thing, a faint smile on his face as he kept his hands tucked in his pockets, just feeling more and more satisfied with his work as more people were brought out. When he saw the old man that would relieve him from his shift being escorted out in handcuffs, he finally turned around, passing by a garbage can and tossing his check in. He looked up just after, spotting Naoto just outside of the crowd of people with a faint smile on her face. He nodded to her, before heading over.

"I almost did not believe this news this morning, that someone had finally been found murdered in this place," she said, before her expression turned serious. "For a moment, I thought…"

Adachi's smile turned into a smirk, shrugging. "Were you worried about me?"

She gave him a _look,_ as if to say that was obvious. A moment passed before she shook her head, turning to walk away from the store with him.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"I dunno," Adachi replied. "Maybe look into private detective work."

That got a snort out of Naoto, and he could not help but chuckle at her reaction. He glanced back toward the store afterward, forking a thumb toward the police cars.

"By the way, they're probably going to find and question me pretty soon," he said. "Do you got my back on helping expose those guys?"

Another faint smile came to her face. "Funny, I seem to recall hiring you before taking this job."

Adachi stared at that, eyes widening slightly in surprise, before a smile worked onto his face. He stuffed his hands back into his pockets, engaging her in idle conversation that mostly involved what his paycheck would look like. It was almost weird; just a few hours ago he had been ready to die, and now it felt like there was nothing he could not do. His world was bright and open, and a good future was set up right before him…

He paused, glancing back at Junes one last time; well… a good future for now, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I honestly didn't think this story would take off as much as it did. Thanks go out to everyone that's read and liked this story!
> 
> Special thanks to DancingPurge for coming up with this idea, and letting me run off with it into the sunset.
> 
> Super special thanks to Scott Cawthon for creating the very awesome Five Nights at Freddy's. Looking forward to the sequel!


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